The Arc chronicles
by Journeymen5796
Summary: Want to see what the first chapter of a future story looks like? Well then come on down and read!
1. The Power Within An Arc

**Hello there internet! Journeymen here with a statement! I live! Anyway, besides that. I'm sorry for going dark for like a week. Or was it two? I can't remember. And i'm really sorry about taking this long to upload this chapter. I really don't have an excuse. (Besides the fact that I had lost my charger and my laptop was dead.) I just wanted to make sure this chapter was really good. And I put a ton of planning into the rewrite. That being said. I hope you all enjoy and I will see you next week! Oh also, just like with the first chapter of the old story. I would like to give thanks to the original writer for letting me do this. Without him I wouldn't be here today. Now, we can get into it.**

 **Beta: Soda-fiedPyscho (Hello again. -S)**

 **No Comment of the week for now. Don't want to pull any from the old story.**

 **I do not own RWBY or anything made by RoosterTeeth…**

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 _Jaune 5 Years Old..._

As I waited in my bedroom, the only light that I'm being provided with is the lamp on my bedside. There was my X-Ray and Valve night light as well but that wasn't on yet. So it was as I was waiting in my comfortable blanket that I saw the door open as the familiar light blue glow came into the room. Which was followed by momma. "Hey, how is my baby boy, feeling tired yet?" Her calming voice asked.

I had to fight back my yawn. "No.." I stated crossing my arms, and I was greeted with a small laugh in return.

"Oh? Well, then how about I read you a bedtime story then?" She asked as a little bit of the light blue being absorbed by a bright yellow. I nodded my head franticly in response. Mommas story's were the best after all.

Not even Violette's stories could compare to hers. Taking a seat at the edge of my bed, she smiled. "Alright, so what do you want today? The story of The Maidens? Or how about The Defenders?" She asked and I shook my head to both of them. "I've already heard those ones. I want something new and exciting." I said, with momma putting her hand to her chin to think for a second.

Before snapping her fingers creating a little spark as she did. "Alright, I think I got something just for you." She said as she held out her hand and out from it came a glowing knight. "Long ago, there was once a brave knight who roamed the land fighting were he could for peace and justice." The small knight then started to walk on air, a long cape behind him as he held a might sword in hand. "But as time went on, the fights grew longer and tiring." The knight now had dented armor as he dragged his sword across the air. "And, soon he stopped fighting all together, for what was the point of fighting if all it brought was more fighting?" The knight now laid down on against a tree, his sword to the side as he watched a battle happen across the field. "But one day, the knight came across a vast and beautiful garden and in that garden was a maiden." The knight was now in a field of flowers and there was a women in a long dress, tending to a growing tree. "Curious, the knight asked why the maiden would tend to this garden. For surely it would take much effort to upkeep it, and she would get nothing in exchange." The mini maiden giggled at the small knight's question. "The maiden, however, shocked him. She explained that while it did take great effort to make this garden, to look at how much she created already and because of her efforts there is one more beautiful thing in the world." The knight then looked around, looking at all the flowers that were nurtured by the maiden before he hung his head in sadness. "However, the knight was not convinced. For what was the point of working so hard, if it wouldn't even matter in the end. For after she was gone, what is to stop something from destroying her garden." The mini maiden walked up to the knight and placed a hand on his shoulder. "The Maiden answered with faith, faith that even after she is gone her garden will continue to grow without her guiding hand. And that one day, someone new will tend to her garden." The Knight then looked at the mini maiden before falling to one knee. His sword gestured towards her. "Moved by her words, the knight pledged himself to the maiden. Swearing that for long as his line drew breath, he would protect the maiden and her garden." The maiden took the sword from the knights hand before placing it on both his shoulders. "The maiden accepted the knights offer, and forever they stayed and tended to the garden. For as long as one has faith, even a simple garden can become much more." The knight and the maiden then faded away as momma closed her hand.

"So how was that my little knight?" She asked, and I gave a pout in response. "That wasn't very exciting." Her response was a laugh and a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight, my little knight. I love you." She said before walking off, "I love you to." I responded before she closed the door, and I turned off my lamp. Leaving only the light from my little night light to illuminate the room. And for the rest of the night. All I dreamt about was a knight, a maiden, and their garden.

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 _5 Years Later…_

Landing in the ground with a thump as I closed my eyes to prevent dirt getting in them, I heard a voice. "C'mon Jaune, get up! You can do more than that!" The voice of none other than my mother who tried to encourage.

My response was spitting out any dirt that got into my mouth as I sat up. "What's the point? You're too strong." I whined as I looked at the ground defeated, with tears threatening to leave my eyes. I heard a sigh, as I saw her shadow cover me, but I refused to look up at her. "Jaune, look at me." She demanded, and when I didn't comply I felt her hand on my chin. And I reluctantly let her pull my head up, forcing me to look at hes blue eyes and golden hair. "Listen to me Jaune, there are going to be plenty of times in your life where things are going to look too difficult or that there is going to be someone that is just to strong for you to beat but just because something looks impossible doesn't mean it is. As long as you give it your all, you will find a way to succeed."

"But what if my best isn't good enough?" I asked and my mother smiled at me in return.

"Well, then you learn from your mistakes and you try harder next time." I sniffled as I nodded my head before getting up and grabbing my wooden sword.

My mom smiled as she held up her own. "Now, let's try to get one more sparring in before your dad gets home from his mission." Putting my sword in the ready position. I charged at my mom with my best war cry.

* * *

 _1 Month Later…_

Jumping out of bed, I quickly put on my clothes as I made my way down stairs. Mom and Dad had gone out on a mission together around a couple weeks ago. Something about a special call from one of their friends. I really didn't pay attention at the time, instead trying to decide what I could get past Violette as she was the main one in charge. Turns out that it wasn't a lot as Saph had already basically put the entire house on lockdown so that she couldn't pull one of her pranks.

But thankfully, mom and dad are coming home today. Which means I can go back to the good old routine of using Saph as my cover for any pranks I do. Making my way downstairs however, any form of a smile left my face. For some reason, the room seemed to lack it's usual glow and warmth.

Everything just looked, greyer. Like all the color of the world was sapped away leaving only an empty void. "Guys, why is everyone so down? Mom and Dad are…" My words died in my throat as my eyes caught my father, who was just sort of standing there. Not moving at all, his eyes blank emotionless. "D-dad? Where's mom?" I asked with baited breath. But I got no response, or at least none that I could hear as it seemed that he was mumbling something. And while I was only ten, it didn't take long for me to figure things out. As the revelation hit me like a truck I took a step back as tears welled up in my eyes. I felt someone hand going to try and reach out for me but I was already gone as I ran up to my room and slammed the door, letting my sorrow poor out with a scream into my pillow.

The next four months felt like long dull years as everyone in the house greaved. With the only thing keeping the grimm for invading our home was the hell that dad brought to all came to invade out home. Even Jake wasn't allowed to come by, not like any of would have paid any mind if the grimm did come.

But as the time went past the family all found their way to grieve. Some like dad and Violette took out their anger on the grimm until their bodies refused to move a step further. To which they cried until there grief became to enticing for any grimm to resist. Where the cycle would then start all over again.

However most of the family chose a much more healthy option as they decided to share their grief together. Eventually healed together too, slowly but surely. They even convinced Violette to stop what was basically her crusade against the grimm that would only end in her death. I was sure that they would convince father soon enough.

Out of all the family members, I was different, for besides maybe Violette, I was the closest of the children to mom, I was her only son after all. And while the other chose to fight and suppress their feelings of sorrow or to grief together and try and move on, I chose solitude. I rarely left my room, if I did it was only really leaving for food or water because I also had my own personal bathroom. The rest of the day, I wallowed in my misery. My room was in a constant grey, as I either cried till I had no more tears left to shead. Or just laid on my bed, staring at the blank grey ceiling. As everyday it felt like there was void in my body that wanted to be filled but couldn't be, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter what I tried, it only brought more pain and grief as I could only think about my mother and how I could never see her again.

And now, I was in the woods running after having gotten into a fight with my father. In the argument, we said some very _choice_ words to each other. I had stormed out the house ignoring any cries for me to wait from my family. And I ran, I ran until my feet couldn't carry me anymore, then I ran some more. Thus leading me to where I was now, in the middle of nowhere in a barely inhabited continent. In grimm infested woods.

On the plus side it was around noon, so that at least meant I didn't have to deal with this is in the dark. Of course another problem was my lungs were on fire, my clothes were torn and I had small cuts just about everywhere thanks to the thick foliage. And my legs might as well have fallen off at this point with how heavy they felt. So instead of trying to find my way back or to very least a road of some kind, I decided to sit against a tree and just think.

Something I really didn't like to do as of late. As memories of her came to my mind, I tried my best to force those memories out, to focus on how to get out of this situation but my efforts were fruitless, even when I tried to convince myself with logic.

That logic being that if I let myself fall into grief now, Grimm would come to me in droves but I was only ten years old, and a very emotional ten year old at that. No amount of logic could ever fix that and so, there I was slumped against a tree, relieving some of my best memories of my mother. Like the times we used to cook for everyone, or of all the stories she used to tell me when before bed. And how she had made them come to life in front of me. Even now I could still remember that knight in perfect detail. From it's little movements to how it almost seemed to be alive in some way. I also remembered the times we trained, how her and dad would always kick me into the dirt during the spars. Or how they made my whole body burn during training. My hands glossed over the knife I was given by her, and the promise she made me make that I would never use a weapon to harm another living being, only to defend. After she had died, I kept it one me at all times. Running through the drills as much as I could, seeing as how training seemed to be the only thing that could keep my mind off things. Of course, it was my want to train more.

That got me into this mess, as father was not so keen on me wanting to train anymore. Saying that it was to dangerous and that he didn't want me to be a huntsman anymore Thus, it started the argument, and me subsequently running away once it got to heated. _Psh, can't even stand up for myself in an argument without running away. Talk about pathetic._ I lamented as the sound of a twig snapping put me on alert, and fearing that it was my father or another family member seeking to come bring me home.

I found the energy to move behind the tree and hide. Something that I was really glad for as it wasn't my family at all but instead something, much, much worse. A Beowolf, a big one at that two, though the lack of bone plating meant it was at least somewhat young. But I doubted that mattered as a pup would have no problem killing a ten year old like myself, which meant that I was screwed unless I stayed hidden, and settled my beating heart.

Father said grimm can sense emotions and I was sure that my sadness lead him to me. The last thing I needed was my fear giving away my location. Taking a step back however was a huge mistake. As the snapping of a twig is what gave me away, and with my cover blown as the grimm looked right at me.

Any form of tiredness I felt washed away as I felt energy course through my veins as I bolted out of there as fast as I could. Trying in vain to ignore the howl it gave before chasing after me, I pushed my legs as much as I could. Resisting to look behind me so that I wouldn't slow down, it's not like I needed to. It felt like it was right behind me so I turned right around a tree, my feeling proved right as it's claws slashed into the bark where I just was. It giving a growl of frustrated as it renewed it's pursuit.

The only things keeping me alive were the sudden turns I had, forcing it to stop and turn directions, slowing it ever so slightly. This tactic worked both ways, meaning that I was unable to shake the grimm and worse yet, my body was getting tired as my lungs once again started to burn but I still pushed anyway as I made to slide over a fallen tree. Only to stop just before crossing it as the Beowolf leaped over the log. Only to find that I had run off into the foliage.

It howled once again, but I ignored it choosing to focus on running instead. And when my body refused to move anymore, I found myself in a clearing filled with a multitude of flowers. And a giant tree in the center, dragging myself to the tree. I looked for any branches or handholds within my reach. But I was to short too reach any of the branches. But before I could curse my small body.

The sound of growling came behind me as I looked behind me only to find the Beowolf step into the clearing. It's red eyes looking at me with contempt. Feeling my heart clench in worry, I looked for anything to hide behind, anything to provide a split second of a distraction, something to protect me. I found nothing, besides the tree behind me. But it wouldn't be able to protect me for long, not long enough for me to find a way to escape. The beast knew it two, if it's wolfish grin was anything to go by. So, as it stepped closer to me.

I grabbed my knife and held it in front of me shaking. "S-stay back!" I cried, swinging my knife around with reckless abandon. The grimm looked amused. "I'm… I'm warning you!" I yelled tears in my eyes. The grimm started to salivate, as it's eyes matched that of a fat man staring at a roasted pig, ready to be served. "GO AWAY!" I shrieked as I charged jutting my knife forward with reckless abandon hoping that I could somehow defeat the beast.

Instead I was forced to watch as the grimm batted my knife away like it was nothing. The blade sticking into the ground about five feet away from me. I stood, frozen as I was now in front of the massive beast. My eyes wide and filled with tears as I felt a warm liquid go down my leg. The grimm gave a deep gargle which I could only aquaint to as a laugh as it raised its hand up. On instinct I raised my hands up to defend myself, but it was no use as the grimm decided to swipe below. Shrearding my shirt and flesh, while also giving the added benefit of slamming me into the tree. The force so strong that I felt the wind leave my lungs as only to be quickly be replaced by blood. Which was currently trying to escape anyway it could, either from the massive gashes in my chest or from my mouth as copper was the only thing that I could currently taste. Looking at the monster, my eyes grew heavier by the second as it walked over to me slowly. Probably trying to milk this experience as much as possible. Though, I couldn't find myself to care at the moment. I couldn't feel anything at all, except for the approaching cold that was coming from my limbs. I didn't even feel the pain in my chest at all.

Guess that is what shock does to you. _To think, I was selfish enough to run away. Now, I'm going to die and so soon after mom died too… I'm...I'm sorry, dad, everyone. I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted to be strong. Please, don't be sad about my death. I'll be with mom, I'll be sure to say hi to her for you guys. After she is done chewing me out for dying so young._ Despite myself, I found myself able to make a small smile at the thought.

As my eyes closed and I waited for my fate. _Barley even ten and I'm already going to die. So much for being a hero huh?_ 'Why do you say that my young knight?' A voice spoke, it sounded calm yet curious. And strangely enough I found myself compelled to answer. _Do you see the situation I'm in?_ I asked the voice. 'Yes, the situation does seem dire. But why have you given up so soon?' I could almost feel the voice tilting its head. _So soon? If you haven't noticed I'm currently bleeding out against a tree in the middle of a nowhere with a very much hungry Beowolf right in front of me._ Sure it might have been a little rude but I think I deserved some slack, I was dying after all. Despite that the voice chuckled, it sounded… sweet.'Young Knight, you must know that it is never too late. Didn't your mother teach you this lesson?' I felt a brief, fleeting moment of anger as this strange voice mentioned my mother but I realized that there would be no point, seeing as how all I would do is be yelling at a strange voice in my head. _Well then, what am I supposed to do?_ I asked. The voice answering with a question of its own. 'Do you wish to see your family again?' _W-what? Of course bu-_ 'Then, get up and fight.' It stated like it was the simplest thing in the world. _But how? I'm only ten! And that this is a Beowolf! A grimm!_ I tried to reason, yet despite myself I found a sudden warmth beginning to build inside of me. 'My young knight.' The voice said, as the warmth began to grow and spread across my body. 'There is so much more to you than you realize.' The warmth then spread across my whole, as I felt a tingling sensation go across my wound. The warmth then began to change into something I could describe as… power. 'All you need, is faith.'

With that power exploded out of me, and I opened my eyes only to be blinded by a bright light. When the light died down, I stared blankly as the grimm actually had covered it's eyes. Allowing me to look down only to stare in wonder as the wound I was given was now replaced with three jagged scars across the chest. They were still fresh, and it somewhat hurt to breath. But that was better dying by far.

The Beowolf however, was not so happy about this change as it howled before coming towards me with a swipe of it's claws. Instincts kicked in however as my body moved faster than it ever did before rolling clear out of the way of the swipe. Ending my roll on my knees facing the beast, who looked very much angry as it went for another swipe. But thinking quickly, I grabbed as much dirt and earth as I could before chucking it towards it's face landing it right into its eyes. It howled in pain and ever the opportunist that I was. I quickly made my way to my knife. Pulling it out just as the Beowolf recovered and tried a downward slash at my mid section, it was met with a cut to its paw. Making the beast reel back and I wasn't going to let the opportunity slip away as I went into the Beowolf's guard, stabbing it in the thigh making it howl in pain. Again, I wasn't messing around as I reached and grabbed for the closest peace of fur I could grab and pulled with all my strength as I jumped up and stabbed somewhere in the chest. It only gave something akin to a choked sob in response as I climbed higher up, this time stabbing between the shoulder blades as I hoisted myself up to where I was now resting on the top of its neck. To it's credit it growled in defiance before I gave a yell and plunged my knife into it's skull.

The body went limp quickly enough as I fell with it. Landing on my face before quickly rolling on my back, I stared at the bright blue sky. I laughed. _I did it! I actually killed a grimm!_ 'Well done my knight. May you now rest for your trials have just begun.' The voice said, and I found myself agreeing as I closed my eyes.

Waking up, I was greeted with the site, not of a blue sky,. but of a dark blue ceiling and there was also a weight on my right leg. And looking at the cause, I was met with the second oldest sibling Crystal who took to wearing her hair in a side braid that reached to just below the shoulder. "Ugh, hey sis." I groggily greated, Crystal to her credit didn't react to an extreme, but she did immediately put me in a bone crushing hug. "Ah! Ah! Hurting the patient! Hurting the patient!"

She got the message quickly enough as she let go, and that's when she started crying. "W-we...were...were so worr...worried about...you. An...and when d...dad brought you...here." Feeling insurmountable guilt from what I must have put my family through, I ignored the pain as I sat up and wrapped my arms around my sister.

"I'm sorry sis. I didn't mean to make you worry like that." There was a couple more sobs from her, but eventually her body stopped shaking.

And with a final sniffle she pulled away wiping away any remaining tears. "I forgive you but only if you don't do something so stupid like that again. I want you to promise me." She pointed a finger at me, and once I nodded and gave the arc vow of not doing anything stupid ever again. She gave a small smile which I reciprocate. "Well, I guess I should tell the others you are awake. Though, I think someone wants to talk to you first." She then walked out of the room leaving the door open for my father to step in.

He was a very much big man, standing around six and a half feet. He had broad shoulders and very much barrel chested. And with his blonde hair that he liked to keep long enough to touch his upper back. His well kept beard that wasn't to wild but wasn't exactly groomed either. Not to mention the deep blue eyes that almost looked like the ocean. My father was almost the definition of a knight, especially when he was in his armor. Right now, however, he looked like a concerned father, who was worried for the well being of his son. "Look dad, I'm sorry for-" I tried to apologize.

But he was already two steps ahead of me as he walked up and hugged me. Not as hard as Crystal by any means, but it was still very much strong. And awkward as he currently had my arms pinned, so I kinda just had to sit there until he let go. "I'm so, so sorry my son. I shouldn't have said those things to you. I was just so scared that what happened to your mother would happen to you or your sisters as well. But, in trying to stop you from being what you wanted to be I almost lost you. You don't know how scared I was when I saw you unmoving next to that dead grimm." He continued to pour his heart out with another sling of apologies.

With all that I could really do is awkwardly pat his side. "I'm sorry too dad. For running like that and for some of the things I said to you as well. You had a point about the world be dangerous. B...but that's why I _need_ to be strong. So that I can help defend you guys. One day even be like you and mom as well." He chuckled at that. "You really are your mother, son." He said rubbing my hair.

"I miss her." I said. "I do too. I do too." He mumbled, and for a while we just sat there in silence. Until he finally pulled away. "Well you want to continue your training? Just a warning, it will be very brutal." He warned, I smiled in response. "Whatever it is I'm ready for it." I said with confidence.

He smiled in response. "Alright then, your first test," I started getting excited, "Is surviving your sisters." My excitement shattered and I immediately whimpered. _I'm not ready_! But before I could vocalize my thought. He was already gone, and I could hear the stampede coming. "Aw, crap-baskets."

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 **Here we are, chapter 1/ test chapter of the Rewrite for TPWAA! What did you guys think of it? Did you like it? Hate it? Leave a review- no wait. Go to the polls on my page and vote for this instead! This is Journeymen signing off!**

 **(Oi! MORTAL KOMBAT 11 IS COMING OUT SOON! The trailer needs better music but was overall amazing with the fight scene. MMMMM! -S)**


	2. The Dragon Who Wanted to Play Hero

**Hello there people of the internet! Journeymen here with the Teaser Chapter of The Dragon Who Wanted to Play Hero. Now, as you all have probably guessed. This story is an AU. Also, I took some inspiration from the Seven Deadly Sins Anime. Which means besides maybe the first couple of volumes. I will not be following the canon at all. Might take some inspirations from it. But that's really it. Anyway, if you enjoy this chapter, why don't you go vote in the polls to put your vote in. Anyway let's get right into it!**

 **Beta: Soda-fiedPyshco & Churros (Churros is my friend on discord -S)**

 **No comment of the week for obvious reasons**

 **I do not own RWBY or anything else made by RoosterTeeth…**

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 _Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that all legends hold some grain of truth._

 _Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness – Monsters – Demons – and eventually the grimm. They all set their sights on man and all of his creations._

 _These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void._

 _However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, ingenuity, and help from angels led them to the tools that would help even the odds._

 _This power was appropriately named "Dust" and with Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life. But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone... darkness will return. So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... For no legend will save you from me._

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Opening my eyes, I was greeted to the hum of a bullhead and the chatter of it's teenager occupants who were talking about their lives, what Beacon will be like, who will be there. How they thought people would be accepted in because apparently Beacon has changed their normal trial by fire method as they put it. I didn't see how any of it really mattered as it's obvious that the staff of Beacon are wanting to keep whatever they plan for this year a secret so there was really nothing you could do. If you tried to predict it and you were wrong then you just wasted all your time only to be caught ill-prepared. With that note, all you could really do is just wait and see.

Shaking my head in vain to try and clear my head from the headache I had gained from my little nap, I tried my best to recall the dream I had. But strange enough I found my mind drawing blanks whenever I tried to recall it. Coupling that with an ever increasing headache. I decided to drop it, instead choosing to focus on anyone who seemed notable.

Sadly however, there was a lot of bland people who did not show any potential. My draconic sight showing that many here had dull and dim auras that did nothing but flow with how fate deemed it.

But that was not the case for all as I found eleven people of note. There was a group of four armor wielding boys all talking together. Three of them were only barely better than everyone else. But they certainly had a lot of potential. But it was the big ginger one that caught my eyes. And with the golden cardinal on his chest piece. It was highly likely, if not certain that he was related to, or in the Winchester family. Meaning that he could be a potential threat. But I doubted the Winchesters remembered their own _true_ history. So I was probably fine, but it still paid to be cautious around him just in case. Our eyes locked for a brief moment, before his attention was taken away by someone he was talking to. _Definitely got to keep an eye on him._

Moving on, I moved onto a boy and a girl. The girls aura was like a raging thunderstorm, wild and powerful and incredibly dangerous. Which from the look of things seemed to fit her personality really well. As the orange hair girl bounced around the other boy of note. Said boy had raven black hair with a pink streak in it, something I suspect has something to do with the bubbly girl. But despite his over energentic partner, he was the exact opposite the perfect picture of serenity in chaos. Which had shown in his aura as well. I found myself mesmerized by how his Aura worked, how it flowed next to that of fate, but at its own terms and it's own pace. It had almost reminded me of a zen garden. Those two were definitely interesting, and I will be keeping an eye on them for sure.

Next was a faunus girl, who decided that she would try to hide her heritage with a simple black bow worn over her ears. Though I wondered what kind they were, my guess was cat but you could never know. Either way, her aura was interesting for while others aura would often try to make itself stand out as much as it could, something that always baffled me. Her's clung to her own shadow, trying to hide itself from the world. Which indicated that this girl is either a natural at the art of stealth. Or she has worked in the shadows for a long time. I wonder if she is tied in anyway to this white fang organization that I have heard about. Just like with the Winchester, her eyes met mine. But this time I decided to offer a small smile and a wave. Wouldn't do if she already suspected I suspected her. And my plan worked as she offered a half assed wave of her own. Obviously trying to act like she was a standard moody goth girl who had no interest in anyone. She was by far the most intriguing, which meant my ever widening gaze shall be on her as well.

After her was a girl with snow white hair and a presence that just screamed for a need no a demand for respect. Coupled with her cold and rigged aura that felt like it would freeze you so solid if you got to near. Evident that the fact that people were giving her a very much wide berth. And you had one recipe for one interesting back story. Something that I will very much like to get to know in the future. Doesn't hurt the fact that the girl looked strong as well.

The next girl I found was striking in every sense of the word. Piercing green eyes, flowing red hair, and the fact that she has been the only female I have found so far that actually wears armor. No matter how sexualized it was. Coupled with the aura of a champion. And I had no doubt that the girl was the strongest one on this ship. Though, she also seemed sad. No that wasn't the correct term, she was more lonely than anything. I could see why as well, most would be intimidated by someone with such power. Of course I was not one of those people. So I saw no reason to try and make friends with her later down the rode. I was very much interested in her future.

As my eyes scanned the floor, surprise hit me like a truck at the next person I saw. There standing by the window sill was a girl two years younger then the rest, no doubt showing that she was a prodigy. But that was not what shocked me, what shocked me was the fact that the girls eyes were silver. Something I thought I would never see in my time. But I guess that means that the headmaster has something to tell me.

However, before I could continue my observation. A young, slightly angered voice cut me off. "Hey, mind telling me why you have been staring at my little sister for the last five minutes?" Looking to the girl, I was greeted to the sight of long blonde hair, lavender eyes, and the aura of a dragon. Or in a more accurate time, someone with an aura like a dragons.

"E-excuse me?" I asked confused.

The blonde girl pointed over to the silver eyed one, who looked incredibly embarrassed. "Don't act stupid, you have been staring at my little sister for a good five minutes now." I blinked rather stupidly in response before my mind caught on to what she thought I was doing. And I bursted into laughter, something that angered the girl.

But I calmed myself down before things escalated. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I just found the situation funny, and to answer your question. No, I was not staring at your sister like that. I was just simply surprised that someone so young was also on there way to Beacon." I explained easily, after all I wasn't lying, I just wasn't telling the whole truth.

Standing up, and subsequently grabbing hold of something as my body fought violently with the ship. I stabilized myself before offering her my hand. "Hello by the way, my name is Jaune Arc." Don't say it, don't you say it. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue." Just leave it right there you accursed mouth. "Ladies love it." I finished it off with pride. Getting a blank stare in return. Damn you lack of social skills.

"Do they?" She asked, and all bravado that was built up went out the window.

"Uhh, I mean my mom does." Oh god why! I was going to try and be cool and mysterious now i'm going to be seen as a bumbling idiot. She is even laughing! "H-hey! It's not that funny." I protested with a flushed face, which only made her laugh harder.

"Yang, leave him alone." The silver eyed warrior came to my rescue.

But the blonde just kept laughing. "I'm sorry Rubes, but mommas-boy here is just to funny." My face became a whole new shade of red as I tried to find the best way to curl into myself until I vanished. Why didn't any of my sisters prepare me for this?

However, either because of pity or just cause she grew tired of it. She eventually stuck out her own hand like I had before. And I took it with grace. "Names Yang, and this little prodigy is Ruby." She said breaking off the handshake to grab her sister for a noogie. Something I was all too familiar with. "Yaanngg…" Ruby protested as she tried to break free from her sisters grip. "What? Am I not allowed to show of my _baby sister_." She said the last part like how one would sometimes talk to their pet.

Watching this all unfold, my previous embarrassment was forgotten as I started to laugh. Getting a strange look from Yang and a chance to escape with Ruby. "I-i'm sorry… it's just nice...to see this... from the outside." I said threw my laughter.

Yang only looking more confused but fortunately Ruby provided a good enough distraction by slipping away before zipping off somewhere else, leaving behind a trail of rose petals. "Gods damn it Ruby!" Yang swore. "Get back here!"

"Uhh, nice meeting you two…" I said weakly. There bright auras being masked by the vast amount of dull colors around us.

I mean seriously, why do all these future hunters have dull and uninteresting auras? They are warriors are they not? I wonder what everyone back home would have thought about this? Actually, I think most of them would have laughed at the whole thing.

Feeling another lurch come from the ship, this time I felt my stomach turn upside down and in on itself. Alright, got to get to the bathroom and fast. Making my way threw the crowd, I bumped into the red hair girl but I quickly apologized before continuing my trek to the bathroom.

Eventually finding it, I swung open the door and went to the closest toilet and proceed to get rid of my lunch. For fifteen minutes, and after I emptied my stomach. I cursed my stupid body before looking at myself in the mirror. I haven't really looked at myself when I was in this form, so I studied every feature.

From my blonde shaggy hair, to my pale but not pale skin. I looked very much a human. The only thing that really gave me away were my sharper and slightly larger than normal cainnies and the fact that my blue eyes were that of a cats. Being the only thing that really gave me away. Even then I could play myself off as a faunus. So all in all it wasn't really that bad at all.

Feeling confident that I would not throw up again. I stepped outside the bathroom, only to catch a glimpse of what looked like a teacher vanishing. But before I could question it, my attention was taken elsewhere as the bullhead rumbled before coming to a stop entirely. The doors then came open, and I waited till everyone was out before stepping out myself. Stepping onto the concrete walkway, I felt my breath be taken away at the sight of Beacon Academy. It felt like more of a castle then anything, and if my memory serves me correct it once was. Being the former home of the King of Vale till humanities great war, where it was then transformed into an academy. But even if it was no longer a castle, it still felt like one. With its massive towers that seemed to touch the skies, as well as the big buildings, with to my right being a building that took up around a city block. That was just supposed to be the library. I wonder what there armory looked like?

Before I could answer my question, an explosion sounded in the courtyard. My mind and body instantly went for my sword and shield. But upon realizing that no one was screaming. Whether in pain or in terror, I let myself relax and sheath my blade. With a now piqued curiosity I made my way to the origin of the explosion. Finding three of the distinct auras on the ship. One was Ruby, who was in the actual crater. The other was the cold girl, who was fuming and covered in soot. Lastly there was the faunus girl, who was holding a vial of red dust. Before I could investigate further. The cold girl walked off, and the faunus shortly followed behind. Leaving Ruby all alone.

On the bright side, I could probably make a better impression. Walking over to the girl, I made a show of clearing my throat as I held out my helping hand. "Need a hand?" I chuckled interilly at my little pun. Ruby did not look pleased at the pun, but she did very much appreciate my hand as she took it with a nod and a smile. "Thanks uhhh…" "Jaune." I cut in for her. She smiled in return. "Thanks Jaune, I haven't really been having the best of days." She said sheepishly, and I made a show of looking behind her and to the crater. "Apparently… well have no fear for I! Jaune Arc! Am the maker of days!" I said flanbointly, getting an amused snort for my efforts. "Your such a dork." She said, and I feigned being offended. "Well you're are a Crater-Face." I playfully shot back. Her face heated up immediately. "Hey! That was not my fault!" She said trying to defend herself.

I just smiled at her in response, as we both started to walk around the courtyard. My curiosity got the better of me. "So Ruby, how did you get into Beacon? If I remember correctly you had to be seventeen to qualify for entry." Ruby, looked bashful for a second. Before finally spitting it out. "I may or may not have been invited in two years early." She explained, and I nodded my head. I could see why after all.

Last I had heard the last of the silver eyed warriors were all killed off around three hundred years ago. When the city of Hanau was besieged by grimm and destroyed. But apparently that was wrong, and if I was the headmaster. I probably would have done what I could to make sure the silver eyed warriors didn't die out as well. But the one problem that I saw with this whole thing. Was that she was a fifteen year old girl. "So…." She trailed off awkwardly, before pulling out something from her back. And I watched with shock and amazement as a scythe around double her size came out. Stabbing into the ground. "Woah! How do you even use that thing?" I asked, after all the sytche itself was impractical as a weapon. Let alone one twice your size. "Oh, that's easy. I use the sniper rifle to propel me forward or to change direction as well as adding more damage to my strikes." She explained easily, and upon looking at my dumbfounded face. Her bashfulness returned, as she put her weapon away. "Hehe, I may have gone a little overboard when making my weapon."

"Wait! You made that thing?" I screamed, Ruby looking confused for a second. "Yeah… everyone makes their own weapon in signal." She said like it was the simplest thing in the world. "Didn't you make yours?" Now I was unexpectedly put on the back foot from the innocent question. "Uhm, I mean yeah." I started nervously. "Can I see it?" God that sounds wrong. "Uhm, yeah oh sure. Just give me a second." And that's certainly not helping. Pulling out my sword the arming sword reflected the sunlight as it's polished blade was held out, with the golden guard and pommel working rather well with the blue grip. Next I grabbed the sheith, and with a press of a button. It transformed into the white shield. With the two golden arcs of my family. "This is Coreca Mors! My pride an joy." I stated, staring at my equipment like how one's father would stare at there newborn son. "What does it do?" Ruby asked. "Oh well, the only really fancy feature is the fact my shield turns into a sheath. Making it more convenient to carry around. To bad it doesn't fix the weight tho." She laughed at my joke and I laughed with her. But even with how I made the blade sound more lackluster then it truly was, being forged in dragon's fire and quenched in demons blood, something that was really hard to find, the blade and shield were almost indestructible, plus it would never dull, nor rust. Meaning it was the perfect weapon in my opinion. Didn't need any of that fancy stuff. "Well, I think it's nice. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." I showed my thanks with a small smile, before we started to walk in silence for about two seconds until. "Uhh. Ruby? Where are we going?" I asked and Ruby looked at me and shrugged. "I don't know I was just following you." At those words, I froze. Shit. "We're going to be late!" I yelled before taking off, Ruby following suit. Though I did notice that there wasn't any rose petals behind her this time. Meaning she wasn't using her semblance.

But thankfully, we made it just in time as the last of the students came filing in. With Ruby immediately leaving me for her sister. Causing me to find my own spot. Luckily there was one right next to the red-headed champion. "Excuse me, but do you mind if I take the spot next to you?" I asked, she looked shocked for a second. Before giving a smile and gesturing for me to go ahead. "Thanks, names Jaune by the way." I said taking the seat. "Nice to meet you." She said, but when she made no move to say her name. I gave her a puzzled look. But I decided to drop it for now, I could always ask later.

Cause right now the headmaster should be coming to address the students. Which after we were told to quiet down from the deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch. The man of the hour showed up. His brown eyes scanning around all of us. His eyes only really focusing on people that I have already labeled as notables. But his gaze focused on me in particular. He then gave his speech, which I was sure was inspiring yet also demoralizing. He just kinda seemed like that kinda guy. But I didn't really focus on that, no instead I focused on his aura. An aura which is that, of an angels. "Mother fucker." I whispered, the champion raising an eyebrow at me. But judging by her curious glance. She was more trying to figure out what I said. But I didn't really care at the moment. I was going to get my answers, and there was not a damn thing that this man can do about it.

* * *

 _Ozpin's Office…_

Walking out of the elevator, I was greeted to the sight of the headmaster talking to his deputy. Though as soon as his eyes met mine. He quickly stopped whatever conversation he was having. Deciding that I was the more important one. Good call really. "Ah, . What do I have the pleasure of talking to you this fine day." He asked, and I glared at him for a second. "You know, when that mysterious angel came to me about wanting to become a hero at Beacon. I should have expected it to be it's very own headmaster." I stated, and Ozpin nodded. "It does sound obvious doesn't it?" He said with a bit of coy smirk, but he tucked it away as he gestured for me to take a seat. Which I accepted. "So, can I ask why there is an Angel running a school to train huntsman." I asked, and Ozpin put down his mug. "Who better to teach the humans then one of there most ancient protectors?" He asked, and I nodded conceding the point. "True, but children?" Ozpin mask didn't even budge. "If I recall, you are also considered a child in your clan. Are you not?" He asked and I glared at him. "Yes, but i'm also thirty-five times _there_ senior. There is a bit of a difference there. Also, we are dragons. We are meant to fight from the day that we are born." I continued my glare. But I only found myself sighing in exasperation. "Jaune, you know it has to be this way. You felt it to, the Demon Clan is returning." His eyes held were soft and caring, trying his best to show that he understood what I felt. But he found it as a necessary evil. "I just, wish there was another way." I said defeated, and Ozpin smiled. "I wish there was too, but I see no other choice. Unless, you can convince your family to come out of hiding that is?" He asked with a small bit of hope. I gave a hollow laugh in response. "You and I both know how my family views about humans these days. No, they won't come out of hiding until it's already to late." "And by then it will already be to late." Ozpin said gravely, and I nodded. "So, you brought me all the way here. What do you want me to do?" I asked, and Ozpin smiled. "First, I want you to get passed initiation. After that i'll give you your first assignment." I nodded my head. "Can I get any hints as to what I will have to go thru tomorrow?" Ozpin gave me an amused smile. "I believe you will find it fits well with your nature." I rolled my eyes at his vague answer, before I got up from my seat and bowed to Ozpin and Goodwich. Both who gave a bow in return. Before walking back into the elevator and heading to the main hall were we all were staying tonight. Hopefully I can still find a good spot.

* * *

 _Auditorium..._

There were no more good spots. Like seriously it's been maybe an hour. And already the only places left are near the bathroom. Something I was not willing to subject my nose to. Or next to the windows, and I don't need to be woken up by a the light of a new dawn. Now if only I could use my wings, then I could fly up to the rafters like a badass and sleep up there. I could also just sleep outside under a tree. Wouldn't be the first time and certainly not the last.

As I was considering my options, my eyes located a spot and it was right next to the faunus to boot. So seeing as how fate was so gracious to give me this offer. I took it as I walked up the amber eyed girl. "Is this spot taken?" I asked, gesturing to the spot on the corner of the wall. "No." She said simply before flipping another page in her book. I placed my sleeping bag on the floor before leaning against the wall. Looking around, it was getting close to dusk as people were talking excitedly about what would be happening tomorrow. I even heard the orange hair girl say that he was going to launch us off the cliffs and make us find some relics. An idea I found amusing, but not something I could see happening. Patting the side of my waist, I missed the familiar feel of my sword against my hip. Using a weapon for three years could do that to a man after all. But I could live the night without it. Especially since I had a scroll to occupy the time.

So after maybe a couple hours of playing games on my scroll I turned it off officially bored. Looking around once more a lot of the commotion died down as people were slowly falling asleep. Though there was some exceptions, sans the bubbly girl who was still ranting about something to the raven haired boy. No doubt torturing those near her as well.

Though, I could also see that the faunus girl was still reading away. Using a candle light so that she could read the pages. Well, at least I can get one of my objectives done tonight. "So, my name is Jaune. What's yours?" I asked, and the girl spared a glance at me before making a big show of turning a page. Man she really is sticking to that goth girl thing isn't she? Well, guess there is only one way to fix that. "You know, you should probably blow out that candle so the others around us can go to sleep." I said, this time she actually looked at me.

"Well how am I supposed to read then?" She asked, trying end the conversation.

I scoffed, "Please, we both know you don't need that candlelight to read."

She stiffened, "I don't know what you-"

"Please, don't stop. I know a fellow faunus when I see one." I said, cutting her off. She was now glaring at me, trying to find my own features. So I thus showed her my cainies, and my draconic eyes.

The faunus relaxed as I saw a pleading look in her eyes. "Please don't tell anyone. I want people to judge me for who I am, not what I am." She said, and I raised an eyebrow. "You can't hide who you are forever. What will you do with your team? They will have to know eventually." Ignoring the fact, that I sounded like a huge hypocrite for telling a girl not to hide who she is. When here I am, a dragon just chilling with a bunch of humans.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I..I don't know, I guess i'll just to cross that bridge later."

I looked at the girl for a couple more seconds before sighing. "Alright fine, i'll keep your secret. But first, answer these three questions." I said and Blake looked at me before nodding her head. "What's your name." I held up one finger, "Are they cat ears under that bow." I held up a second finger, and I saw the faunus girl blush and nod her head yes. Called it!

"My name is Blake, now what is your final question." She demanded.

I gave smile and held out my hand. "Wanna be friends Blake?" I asked, and Blake looked at me shocked for a second . Before nodding her head and taking my hand with a small smile on her lips.

Sweet, that's two of the eleven interesting people down. Don't know if Yang counts yet, she kinda just laughed at me the whole time. "Alright, well goodnight Blake. Also could you actually blow out that candle for me? I asked, and Blake sighed before grabbing the candle stand and blowing each one out. Leaving our little corner in darkness.

* * *

Waking up with a good old stretch and a yawn, I looked around to find that it was still dark outside. But it wasn't in the middle of the night either. If I had to guess it was around an hour before dawn. Looking around the auditorium though, I found that there was no one. Not a single person in there sleeping bags. Not even Blake, getting out of the sleeping bag.

Getting out of my bag. I felt a chill hit my spine as I was forced to hug myself to try and keep the heat inside my body. "How did it get so cold?" I wondered as I walked across the floor on the auditorium. Being careful not to step on any sleeping bags as I made my way to the door.

Upon stepping outside however I was greeted to not the halls that were supposed to be here. But a barren wasteland, filled with jutting purple crystals and pools of black. Add in the blood red sky and you got yourself own big place of nope vill. Turning around to leave, I found that the door I came in was no longer there. "Great." I said flatly, well if I was going have to deal with this I might as well keep myself proper.

Taking in a deep breath. I felt my inner fire swell within me as my senses become sharper and heat spread across my body. I looked across my arms and legs and noticed the presence of scales that dotted them. Now in my dragonoid mode as I liked to call it. I walked across the barren wastes with little fear, but I still held caution as I eyed every corner and kept my ears focused on even the slightest of noise.

Eventually it bore fruit, as the sound of clashing steel could be heard in the distance. Running towards the noise I eventually had to stop as I was faced with a cliff face. But I could still hear the clashing coming from up top.

So with a hellish fever I scaled the cliff. Using my claws to find purchase in the rocks. Eventually making it up far enough to reach to top. I pulled myself up, panting ever slightly as it felt like the air itself was trying to drain my energy. But the clashing was louder than ever, and I was not going to give up just yet. So I pushed myself onto my feet and looked on a head.

What I saw made my heart stop. For all as the eye could see. Where monsters of various colors and sizes, all cheering or howling or whatever noise they liked to make. The fact of the matter is that there were so many of them I couldn't see the end of them, and as for the clashing.

Well, there in front of me where to people clad in armor. The one on the right being made out of dragon scales as horns were adorned on his helmet acting like some kind of sick crown. While the other was a golem made out of the purple crystals themselves. But with black veins keeping it all together.

As the two continued to fight, the golem made a mistake costing it is left leg. Then it's head. The crowd cheered as black ooze seeped out of the crystal. The armored man holding up his blade in victory, before he turned to me. " **You can't run from me.** " I felt my blood run cold at his words, and before I knew it he was on me. Slashing towards my chest, then everything went black.

* * *

My eyes shot open as all I could hear was the beating of my heart, but a quick glance to my side told me that I was okay. As there still sleeping was Blake. Taking a couple deep breaths. I felt my heart calm down as I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position. Looking across and seeing the multitude of sleeping teens. "Well, that was something." I said under my breath as I got to my feet and made for the showers.

It had just reached dawn, as I could see the faintest bit of the sun. Which had actually brought me even more reassurance that what I had seen was just a dream. But even then, I had a feeling that I shouldn't dismiss it so easily. Setting my clothes inside a locker, I stepped into one of the showers and let the hot water go across my skin. Almost immediately I was greeted to the feeling of relaxing muscles as I scrubbed myself with soap.

Only, to realize as I was doing one of my arms that I was in my Dragonoid mode. "Okay, that's definitely unsettling." I whispered as I quickly reverted back to my human form. Stepping out of the shower with a towel around my waste. I brushed my teeth before going to the locker and pulling out my clothes and quickly getting changed.

By the time I was done, some other early risers were getting ready. Most I found were the people near the bubbly girl and her friend. Which means… "Hello~!" The orange hair girl sang as she appeared right in front of me.

Causing me to jump in surprise. "Oh, hello?" I said back.

"My name is Nora, what's yours?"

"Jaune." I said, wasn't this bathroom meant for boys only? "Isn't this room meant for boys only?" I echoed.

She just waved it off. "It's okay, me and renny have known eachother since we were kids." Well, you can't really fault that logic.

Wait… "Who's Renny?"

She pointed to the raven haired boy, who gave a tired wave. "That's Renny! Well his name is Ren, but I call him Renny." She explained, as I slowly nodded my head along. "So, what do you think initiation is going to be?" She questioned.

"Why are you asking me?" I asked back with a raised eyebrow.

"Because I saw you go to the Headmasters office yesterday. I wanted to follow you, or intergate you. But Renny told me not to." She said with disappointment.

Note to self, thank Ren. "Well, even if I did know. I couldn't tell you." I said, and her disappointment only grew.

Then she bounced right back up again. "Alright. See you later Jaune-Jaune!" She waved off before she went back to Ren and I quickly took the chance to book it to the cafeteria. I kinda felt bad for leaving Ren to that girl but like she said they have been friends for years and I can barely handle my sisters let alone that girl.

So after some sausage and eggs with extra bacon. I left the cafeteria and headed off to wear we had to put all our stuff away. There I found Yang and Ruby, who were talking about something. I couldn't find Blake, but I saw Ren and Nora talking about something. There was also the group of guys next to the Winchester but I really did not want to talk to him, so I moved on.

Instead, I chose to go to locker. And as luck would have it, it was between the cold girl and the champion. "Excuse me girls." I said walking up to them.

"What do you want?" The cold girl said.

"Hello Jaune." The champion replied with a smile.

"Hello, and to answer your question. You two are currently standing in front of my locker." I said, pointing to my locker. The cold girl looked a little bashful as they moved out of the way to let me get my stuff.

And after grabbing my weapon and strapping up my armor I looked to the champion. "You know, you never did give me your name." I told her, and she looked shocked for a second.

But before she could continue the cold hair girl interrupted her. "Are you kidding me? You don't know who she is?" She asked, sounding offended for the champion.

"Not a clue." I stated.

"Well then allow me to educate you. This is Pyrrha Nikos." She stated matter of factly.

"Huh, nice to meet you Pyrrha." I said with a smile and I held out my hand for a handshake.

Pyrrha took the offer with a smile. "Nice to meet you to Jaune." The cold girl didn't like this apparently. As she forcefully pulled our hands apart.

"Hey! You can't just do that! She is Pyrrha Nikos! The Four Time Champion of the Mistral Tournament!" The cold girl was starting to become annoying.

But I decided to ignore it. "Wow, that's impressive. Figures though. You have the look of a strong fighter." I said making Pyrrha smile brighten

And the cold girl go red with rage. "She graduated the top of her class in Sanctum!"

"Nice, but again. Not really surprised."

The cold girl was about ready to burst. "She is on the cover of-"

"Let me stop you right there." I said, holding up my hand to cut her off. She glared at me but let me speak. "Are you her mother?" I asked

The cold girl looked confused. "What? No but-"

"Ah. I wasn't finished." I said cutting her off again. "Are you in charge of her?" She shook her head no. "Then why do you get any say in what she can and can't do?" She remained silent for about a few seconds.

Before her face became a tomato. "How dare you! I am Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and I demand-"

"You demand nothing." I said, letting my draconic eyes slip through. My patience was already thin with this girl thanks to our conversation. But it broke once she tried to demand something from a dragon. "I don't care who you supposedly are _princess_. But let me make one thing clear, I do _not_ take orders from some stuck up girl who has a stick shoved so far up her own ass she might as well be a puppet." I then slammed the locker door, leaving the two in shocked silence.

"Have a good day Pyrrha. Hope to see you after initiation." Departing with a smile and a nod towards Pyrrha, I left the two stun girls to go find a bench to sit on where I could nurse my growing headache.

"Man, and people say I can explode when I get angry." A familiar blonde voice said.

"Hello Yang." I replied dryly, Yang making a gesture for me to scoot over.

Which I did. "So...why did you explode up all over Ice Queen over there?" She asked and I snorted at the nickname.

"Well besides being incredibly annoying. She thought she could boss me around, just because of her supposed name." I ranted.

Yang nodding her head. "Well, her name does come with a lot of power." She said.

I scoffed. "Where I come from, your name isn't what matters. But your actions that let you lead."

Yang nodded her head in understanding. "Ah, so your from Vacuo then." Sure let's go with that. I nodded my head.

As she got up from her seat. "Well, I can respect that. See you later Momma's boy." She said with a teasing tone, causing me to roll my eyes but the smile I had on gave me away.

"Will all students please come to the arena," the voice of Goodwich said. Well time to get this show on the road I guess.

* * *

 _Arena…_

Walking into the arena, I took an empty seat and waited as the crowd slowly came in. And once everyone took their seats, Ozpin walked in, "If I could have your attention." He said, his voice carrying over the noise and silencing the crowd. "Thank you. Now as all of you know, I am Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of this academy. And you all, are some of the best that your schools, whether through a teacher or experience has to offer. You all came here today to become hunter. But let me tell you this. Not many of you have what it takes." The crowd shifted uncomfortably as many murmurs came across the arena. "Fortunately, for those of you that do, I shall give you this one piece of advice. Never stop learning, for once you do, you will die." The cold tone in which he said that, made me and many others have to suppress a shiver. "Now as you all know today is initiation. Normally we would have put you in the Emerald Forest and send you to find relics that have been strung about. But, this year we are doing something different. Thanks to the efforts of the best of both Vale and Atlas we now have the capability to push you to your limits without the risk of the loss of life." A giant monitor behind him suddenly came to life, revealing a tube with a bed and what looks like a helmet inside of it. "These will be used in your initiation today where you will be tested through a variety of real life scenarios. Now this will be your only warning, what you will experience will feel completely and utterly real. So if any of you wish to, you may leave now."

Almost immediately, a handful of students walked away but besides them no one else left. "Very well, we currently only have sixteen of these devices available. So we will be selecting at random who will be going in there. The rest of you shall go through initiation normally." He stated before walking off, leaving a bunch of shocked kids, one of which was me, but I also admired his ways.

Already he has gotten rid of those who were of weaks hearts and/or minds which will already boost the quality of people this year so it seemed that Ozpin was taking his role as guardian seriously.

Before my musing could go any further, I looked towards the screen and took notice of the fact that my own name and everyone I deemed unique's name is up on the screen along with a couple extra people to fill in the missing four spots. "All those names that are on the monitor, come on down and strap yourself up. The rest I will see you at the cliffs." He said before walking off with the rest of the cliffs, though I did catch him throw a subtle glance at me.

I mostly ignored it, instead picking my pod and hopped in. Waiting as people came on by and strapped us in. "Before we begin, does anyone have any questions?" I saw and Ruby and a guy with a mohawk raise their hand. "Mr. Thrush?" Goodwitch asked.

"Can I use the bathroom?" He asked.

"No." She gave a glare to boot, and I saw Ruby lower her hand as well. "Anything else? No? Good now let's began." With a flick of her riding crop, the helmets came on her heads and I heard some people yelp in surprise as the strap fastened itself around my chin. Then there was bright light.

* * *

When the light faded. I was greeted to the sight of the night sky, and the distant sounds of screaming. Shooting up, I looked around me only to find that I was alone and fortunately I was not unarmed, so I went straight to the sounds of screams. And the orange glow in the distance.

Once there I was staring at what looked like a village under siege of grimm. Pulling out my sword, I ran into the fray towards the nearest Beowolf before sinking my blade into its neck. The Beast being caught off guard couldn't even give off a howl before it vanished into the air. Scanning my surroundings, all I could see past the smoke were dead bodies and destroyed buildings.

There was a distant sound of a shotgun going off, and with the possibility of it being a survivor. I rushed to it, dealing with as many passing grimm that I could. "Gah! Take that!" Yang screamed as I came into the courtyard she was at were I found her fighting off some Ursas and Beowolfs.

"Yang duck!" I yelled out to her, and whether she heard me or it was instincts it didn't matter as she ducked out of the way of a swipe before countering with a blast of her gauntlets straight to its face, blowing grimm matter all over the place. Pulling out my shield, I charged and slammed into a young Beowolfs back making it stumble right into another of Yangs fists.

I slashed at another's leg, scoring a cut deep into the limb, once again letting Yang finish it off. An Ursa roared as it tried to attack her from behind, but I stepped in front of the attack with my shield raised. The claws racking against the metal but otherwise no damage done to either of us. And with a swift cut into its throat, the grimm was left to bleed out before vanishing. Getting back to back with Yang, I looked around and noticed that more of them were slowly approaching. "Yang, we need to get out of here. There are too many of them." I said.

Yang nodded. "Got a plan then Mommas Boy?" Ignoring the nickname, I looked for any openings. For a chance to escape, eventually finding that over where some of the grimm were emerging there was structurally weak infrastructure just waiting to be knocked down.

"Think you can knock that wall down?" I asked, and Yang looked towards it.

"Can you buy me some time?" She answered. I nodded, before we broke off.

I charged into the nearest horde shield first, allowing me to knock over one of the grimm and couple others but being repaid in kind with ether claws or teeth. I grit my teeth and ignored it as I heard a mad squeal when a Boarbatusk came charging at me.

Before it could reach me I grabbed one of paws of the grimm that tried to attack me and pulled making it trip and fall right onto the Boarbatusks path. Its body eviscerated before it was sawed threw. But by then I had already moved out of the way and watched as the Boarbatusk continued to saw threw some of its fellow grimm before finally stopping.

It stopped at a weird angle causing its underside to be exposed, but sadly it was to deep into the grimm horde for me to get in there and secure the kill. With a loud rumble I looked to see that Yang had knocked the building down causing it to collapse on some of the grimm, while also providing an escape route. "Jaune this way!" She called out and I headed toward her, killing any grimm that tried to bring me down.

Making it through the hole, Yang and I ran as fast as we could until we were out of the immediate area. "You know, when I said buy me some time. I didn't mean throw yourself into the horde of grimm." She joked, though I could hear the chastising subtone.

"I like to get into the thick of it." I replied with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, what are we supposed to do? How do we pass this thing?" Before I could give my response. There was a ring in both of our pockets as we pulled out our scrolls only to receive a message from Glynda.

~ _Your goal is to find everyone else and any survivors, after which you are supposed to got to the rondevu and wait for pick up.~_

"Well isn't that convenient." Yang said flatly.

"They are probably able to listen and see everything we do." I put my scroll away as I looked to the buildings. "You check the left and I check the right?" I proposed, and she nodded before -is it charging or cocking?- she did something with her gauntlets and went ahead.

Most of the buildings on my were side destroyed so as I entered a building. I held up my shield as I looked inside it. "Hello? Anyone here?" I got no response from the dark, but as I turned to leave.

The movement of ruble made me freeze as I turned to the sound with weapons at the ready. But with the very human groan, I relaxed before moving in. Still keeping my weapons up just in case, I looked to the debris and found an old man pinned under a cabinet. "Sir? Can you hear me?" I asked, and the man nodded.

Turning his head as much as he could to look at me. "Help….me…." I knelt down towards the man, resting a hand on his shoulder as I let my semblance take effect.

Amplifying his aura to ease the pain. "Now, can you tell me if anything feels broken or numb?" I asked.

His eyes shifted towards his left leg. "My...leg...I can't...feel it." He said and it was then that the smell of blood finally reached me.

Looking to the cabinet, I saw a pool of it growing where his leg is. "Alright, sir I'm going to need you to listen to me. I'm going to lift this cabinet up and pull you out. Now after that I'm going to need you to not panic. You got that?" He nodded. "Alright, on the count of three," I said as I put my hands underneath the cabinet getting a firm grip. "One," I tensed up my body. "Two," I began to lift it slowly. "Three!" With that I lifted up the cabinet as the old man pulled himself out.

This revealed a bone sticking out of his left leg, I being the wonderful hero, I resisted the urge to vomit. I grabbed a hand and immediately used my semblance to stop the blood from coming out. Ripping up a bed sheet nearby, I used it to wrap up his leg to help stem the blood flow. "Alright sir, I'm going to need you to hold onto this leg for me. I'm going to half to carry you." I said and he nodded, grabbing onto his leg as I picked him up carefully and carried him out. "Yang I got one!" I yelled as soon as I got out.

Yang coming out of a house with what looked like two kids. "I found some as well." She said, though clearly upset. I had an inkling it had to do with the fact that these kids didn't have their parents with them.

"Yang, c'mon we need to go find the others." I reasoned trying to help her focus. It worked to, as Yang nodded as we led our survivors to the rendezvous.

There we found Pyrrha and Weiss who looked like they were arguing about something, along with the Winchester and his little gang. They had a small group of survivors with them as well. "Pyrrha! Weiss!" I yelled, and both stopped whatever argument they were having and came over to me as I set the old man on the ground gently. "Do either of you have practice in first aid? Or maybe some healing dust?" I asked and Weiss looked hesitant, but a glare from Pyrrha made her hand over a small tube of light green dust. "Thanks." I said, before opening the bottle and sprinkling the stuff over his wound.

The effects happening immediately as the bone shifted back into place and the skin tissue and muscle went back into place. Leaving only a massive bruise. Sadly it had used up the whole vial. "Do you have any more of this stuff?" I asked her, and Weiss shook her head no.

Standing up, I looked around and saw that there was a distinct lack of people. "Where are the others?" I asked.

Winchester scoffed. "I don't know, let's just call the transport and leave already." He said.

Yang immediately sprang up "We can't do that! My sisters still in there." Yang said.

Pyrrha went to her side. "I agree we can't just leave our comrades in danger."

Weiss however, stood by Cardin. "We shall go now and pass while we still have chance." She said coldly. "How could you say that?" Yang said, her eyes interestingly enough turning red. "We can't just leave people like that!" She screamed, Weiss remained impassive. "Were not leaving them in any real danger. This is just a simulation, at worst they just fail initiation. In which case they can always try again next year." She reasoned, Yang giving an inhuman growl before taking a step forward. Weiss brandishing a dust rapier in response.

But before anything could happen, I steeped in between them. "Enough! All this bickering is stupid and gets us nowhere!" I yelled before looking to Weiss. "We are not leaving people behind if we don't have to. That is not how a huntsman operates." She looks at me with a cold glare but doesn't say anything as she puts her rapier down, and looking over I see Pyrrha and Yang doing the same at Weiss.

It seems that even though this was supposed to be a simulation it was getting to everyone and tensions were hot and ready to burst if I wasn't careful. "Weiss, I'm going to you need you Pyrrha, and Yang to come with me to look for others. We will need your dust for putting out fires and clearing our way." Weiss gave a huff and a glare but didn't protest and I looked toward Winchester. "I need you and everyone else to keep this area clear until we come back. Can you do that?" I asked and he gained a arrogant persona as he scoffed.

"Can I? Just you wait and see." He boasted.

I looked to Yang and Pyrrha who nodded in unison. "Alright let's go!" Running into the village, Yang and the others were behind me as we ran into the village.

A Beowolf came running at me, but a shot from Pyrrha who was now holding a rifle. Stunned it long enough to lob off it's head. Next came some Ursa Majors that blocked our path as they turned to face them. "Weiss! Yang!" I shouted as I stepped back as Yang and and Weiss stepped forward. Yang sending to blasts from her gauntlet straight at the group, causing dust and smoke to rise up and block there vision. Weiss then charged forward and slammed her rapier to the ground causing dust to spring from the ground and encase the two beasts.

"You two step back! Pyrrha, come take front with me!" I yelled and they all followed my order as Pyrrha and I went ahead "Shields up! Prepare to breakthrough!" Again she followed my order as we both held our shields before we leaped at the frozen grimm.

Smashing through them, we came to stop as we looked to see Ruby and the others holding up in a house. "Weiss! Do you have any earth dust?" I asked and she nodded her head. "Give it here!" I demanded with my hand outstretched. Weiss sent me a glare, but upon a glare of my own she relented and handed it over. "Thank you. Now everyone duck!" I warned as I charged my semblance, the now amplified dust in the container reacting violently as the whole thing began to shake. Without a second to waste I threw it into the horde, the dust acting like a grenade as spikes of earth erupted in the center of it all.

Skewering many of the grimm in the process. "Go! Pick up any stragglers!" I said with my sword held high before rushing into the fray itself. Cutting into any grimm I could get my hands on as I felt my blood boil.

Pretty soon those trapped inside the building came out to help as well. Pretty soon there where all gone as I looked to the heavy breathing and slightly battered fellow initiates. "So, what's the situation?" I asked the group we just rescued.

Ruby was the first to step up. "We were all making it to the rendezvous, when suddenly a huge swarm came at us out of nowhere. Before we could even find any place to hold up we lost a guy." She said as she looked upset and clenched her fists, most likely beating herself up that she failed to protect someone, even if this was a simulation.

It was still really intense and I did not want to know what someone dying in here would look like. "It's okay Ruby. You tried your best." I tried to reassure her, but she didn't really seem to buy it. "So, how many do you have with you?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"We have all our fellow initiates here, as well as fifteen survivors." She explained and I nodded my head.

"What are the extent of their injuries?"

"Three of them can't walk." She answered.

"Alright, we will form a protective circle around them, those that can't walk will have to be carried." I looked to Nora, and her massive warhammer "Nora! I need you and Yang up front! You two will be our vanguard!" Nora gave a salute and Yang a nod as I looked to Ren and Ruby. "You two act as support and pick off anyone you can." They both nodded as I saw Ruby shoulders sag in relief.

"Alright/Got it!" They both said at the same time.

I then looked to Pyrrha. "We can act as rear guard." She nodded, next I looked to Weiss and the other three initiates. "You four act as the main defense for the survivors and supply support wherever you can." The three guys nodded and Weiss sent me another glare but nodded as well as we all got into positions. "Alright let's move it!" I yelled as we slowly started to move make our way to the rendezvous. Yang and Nora plowing through any and all that came in there way with everyone else dealing with any remnants or stragglers.

Eventually we made it as all the survivors were placed with the others and as soon as we were in sight. Winchester made the call as we got a new message from our scroll.

~ _Message Received. ETA approximately 10 minutes.~_

We all relaxed a little bit at the message but none of us let our guard down because as one of the fellow initiates said, it would be the perfect time to throw a curveball at us right now. So we waited in bated breath, taking care of any grimm that came to close. When suddenly we got another message.

~ _Large anomaly heading your way. Be careful.~_

Before I could even question what that meant, the earth rumbled before there was a scream as one of the initiates was picked up by a giant skeletal had, and his head bitten off cutting off his screams as I giant thirty foot skeleton proceeded to drink the spilling blood before the body disappeared in a mass of pixels. "Oh my god!" Someone screamed.

"What is that!" I heard Yang scream.

"Gashadokuro!" I yelled before duking it's outstretched hands. The other initiate besides me though wasn't so lucky as he to was grabbed. Shots rang out as it looked like all those who could were trying their best to cause him to drop. But only thing that seemed to slightly fazed it was Nora's grenades. But even then it didn't cause it to drop him as he to fell victim to the monster.

Looking around with panic in my eyes, I could see that Weiss was frozen in shock. "Weiss you need to snap out of it! We need your dust!" I yelled at her but she remained unfazed as she continued to stare at the monster. "Gods damn it." Grabbing her rapier out of her hand.

I pulled out a lighting dust container and charged it up and threw its face. The explosion causing the monster head to be knocked back. "Hell yeah take that!" I yelled. It then slowly turned to me. "Oh fuck." Grabbing Weiss I pulled her out of the way as we dodged it's palm slamming into the ground.

Nora quickly supplying aid with another barrage of grenade fire. "Ruby! Ren! You two get the survivors out here! Nora! Yang! You try and distract that thing!" I yelled and they followed orders as they took all of them out of there. I looked to Winchester and his group, who looked about ready to piss themselves. "You and your group keep any grimm off of us, we don't need to add more to this shit show!" Winchester looked at me for a second, before nodding with a face that screamed determination. "Here watch her while your at it!" I said handing Weiss to him. He looked like he wanted to object, but I was already gone.

Ren and Ruby quickly got the survivors out of there but as Yang and Nora kept firing at them. Pyrrha went to shoot it in the eyes. Landing a clean hit, but all it seemed to do was make the creature backhand her into a tree. Knocking her out of commision. "Pyrrha!" Yang yelled and I saw her eyes go red as she went to punch it.

But before she even it went to grab her, and she would not be able to dodge it. Without even thinking I moved, shoving her out of the way and causing it to grab me instead. It then lifted me into the air, causing me to lose grip on the dust rapier and my life line.

I quickly stabbed my sword into the hand, but it couldn't puncture the bone no matter how many times I stabbed it. My attacks started to become more frantic as I got closer to it's gaping maul. But all seemed futile even as I went into my Dragonoid mode, it did little more then cause it to hesitate for a second before resuming on making me it's next meal.

As things looked bleak, I was getting ready to transform fully. When suddenly it roared in pain as ice shot up it's leg and arm. Causing it to let me go, I looked to the culprit to find Weiss holding her rapier. "Thanks." I said.

Weiss looked at me. "Save it, what's the plan?" She asked.

I looked at her. "Its bones are too tough to pierce, and blunt force and explosions aren't doing that well either. So far the most effective thing has been your dust. But it still doesn't affect it all that much if's from the outside." I explained, and I was suddenly handed a canister of fire dust.

"If I can get you to it's mouth you do the rest?" She asked, and I nodded my head. "Good." She then suddenly dashed in, stabbing into the bone and causing ice to shoot out of its leg. It screamed in pain as it went down on one leg.

"Hit me with some lighting!" Nora screamed, and Weiss obliged putting another canister of lighting into her rapier before shooting it at Nora. The bubbly girl absorbing the blast, as pink lighting of her own spread across her body, and with a launch from a flaming Yang.

Nora went up, then down slamming the hammer on its head forcing it down and even causing cracks to spread across it. It went to close its mouth, but I quickly threw in the dust canister fully charged. The caniser went right in and there was a couple seconds of silence before a large explosion burst the skeleton into a thousand pieces. With the death of the skeleton, a new message came from our scrolls.

~ _Congratulations. You all passed. Ending simulation now.~_

* * *

Suddenly everything went white once again as when I woke once again. It was to a now open tube with Ozpin looking at all of us. "Congratulations on passing. For those who have passed I will see you during the team announcement ceremony. And for any of you that may need it, we have a psychologist on hand." With that he walked off leaving all of us to do our own thing.

* * *

 **Here it is! The pilot chapter for The Dragon Who Wanted to Play Hero, and man was it an experience writing it. I mean my fingers just wouldn't stop writing. But hey, it was fun and I hope you all enjoyed it as well. If you did, be sure to vote for it in the polls. Until then, this is Journeymen signing off!**

 **Next Chapter: The Gamer That Was Promised**


	3. The Gamer That Was Promised

**Hello Everyone! Welcome to the Pilot Chapter of The Gamer That Was Promised! A Game of Thrones gamer fic. Now as to why this came out so late. Well, it's mostly due to the vast change in my schedule thanks to my new job. So I have had to reschedule everything because of that. Now with that let's get going, shall we?**

* * *

Deep in the Catacombs, I softly cried as I knelt in front of a woman made of stone. I was of ten and three years, my hair as black as night and teary red eyes a steel grey. They were features of House Stark, but I was no Stark. I was Jon Snow, bastard of Winterfell. In front of me was Lyanna Stark, who I recently discovered was my mother. As I looked upon the cold stone face of Lyana, my mind wandered to when I made my discovery.

Or rather, when I stumbled upon it.

* * *

 _1 Hour Ago…_

The halls of Winterfell were quiet as the winds battered against the stone walls of the castle. The only sounds that could be heard were my soft footsteps. I was currently wrapped up in a winter cloak as I walked towards the room where Lord Stark, my father, slept.

I wished to talk to him just once about my mother. He usually avoided the question, but I hoped he would finally tell me who she was tonight.

As I neared the door to his bedchambers, however, I heard what sounded like Lady Stark from the other side.

"I can't stand it, Ned!" She screamed, "I can't! I will not suffer that boy any longer!"

My heart felt heavy as I heard Lady Stark's voice. However, no matter how much I wanted to, I could not bring himself to hate her. She was right, after all. She did not have to suffer him. I was a stain on his father's honor and a constant reminder of the man's disloyalty. It was only thanks to his lord father's kindness that I was allowed to stay with those of his blood.

It was something I would be eternally grateful for.

"Cat…" Lord Stark said softly, though I struggled to hear him speak from the other side of the door. Filled with a morbid curiosity, I opened the door just enough that a small crack could appear. I was rewarded with Lady Stark's screaming becoming much easier to hear, not that it wasn't before, as I gazed upon his lord father and Lady Stark.

"No Ned! I will not suffer it anymore! Why do you keep that _wrench_? Why must you constantly reminded me of how a whore was able to sway you!"

He felt anger rise form within him. It was as if a fire was lit inside.

Before I could do anything. My lord father spoke first.

"That is enough." Lord Stark angrily, yet coldly, responded, "I will not have you disrespect that woman."

"Why?" She screamed, "Why must you do to this me Ned!"

"I will not abandon the son of my sister, Cat!"

There was a sharp gasp, and it was when both heads quickly snapped to the door where I was that I realized it came from him. My body moved and ran away from the door.

"Jon!" Lord Stark cry out.

I ignored it and ran as fast as I could. I faintly noticing that my face had grown cold as tears ran down my face.

Before I knew it, I found himself in the catacombs in front of the statue of Lyanna, my true mother. Feeling a newfound sense of sorrow came over me, and I fell to my knees and cried.

* * *

 _Present…_

I gave another whimper as I looked at the statue.

"All, this time?" I said, my voice rough thanks to my sore throat, "All...this time... I wondered who my mother was. Turns out you were here the whole time."

I couldn't help but keep my head down in shame.

I wasn't an idiot. I knew what it meant if Lyanna was my mother. Lord Stark would never partake in incest. So that just meant I was conceived sometime when Rhaegar had kidnapped my mother. I was not just a bastard, but a bastard born of rape.

"I..I wonder...if you hated me? If...you cursed my name as you died." I confessed to the statue.

It said nothing. It just kept looking at me with those cold stone eyes.

"Did you give me that same look when you saw me? Or did you hold hatred?" I wondered aloud.

Again, all I was given was that same stone look.

"Jon..." I heard a voice call out to me. It was quiet but...soothing.

My mind felt numb as the soothing voice beckoned to me. My body moved on its own as I was walked deeper into the catacombs. I followed without question. I went so deep that any potential light from any basin or torches were long since gone. The air was stale and cold, but I continued my trek forward.

Eventually, I reached where the catacombs were cut off by stone that had fallen long ago. The voice continued to call to me from the other side of the stone. My body began to move the stone out of the way, trying its best to peel away the barrier of rocks. When my body couldn't move any more of the rocks, the voice suddenly vanished, and an orange light appeared from the edge of the stairwell that had led me here.

Panic settled into my mind as I made a poor attempt to hide. Unfortunately, the darkness betrayed me as I tripped on a rock. A yelp escaped me, but that was quickly masked by the sound of the wall I crashed into. The orange glow soon faded as the wall gave way and I screamed at the quickly surrounding darkness as I fell down the hole on the other side.

Opening my eyes, I felt...pain, mostly in my leg and arm. But it was not isolated to there, no. It was all across my body. Giving a groan, I opened my eyes to find only darkness. An orange glow high up above was the only light I could see. As my senses came back to me, so to did the cold of the catacomb. My right arm was pinned and probably broken. It also hurt to breath, and I knew I was bleeding badly from my left leg and side.

"Jon!" Lord Starks worried voice echoed across the darkness. "Jon! Are you there? Hold on, son! I'll go get help!"

I smiled a little as Lord Stark called me his son. He only did that in private. But as I saw the orange dot vanish, leaving me in the darkness

I couldn't help but raise my only good arm towards its last location.

"W-wait," I whimpered, "c-come back….don't….don't leave...me…"

Tears left my eyes as I coughed up what was no doubt was my blood. So this is how I die? Alone in the darkness with a promise of help that will be too late to save me? There was something ironic in there, I was sure; but for what little life of me I had left, I didn't know, nor very much care.

Letting loose a ragged breath, I waited for death to take me. No matter how long I waited, though, it never came. It seemed that my body was not willing to give up yet. Must have gotten the stubbornness from my mother.

Looking in the darkness, I couldn't help but feel regret for what I had done. It was amazing, the clarity I had gained while I waited for death. I could understand why Lord Stark – no – my father had decided to keep my parents secret from me. If King Robert found out, I would be dead before the morrow. That, or I would force the kingdoms to go to war. So maybe it was good that my life ended here? The chance of war would be gone, and the realm would continue to live in peace. Yeah, I think I could live with that. I always did want to go out like a hero, and what's more heroic than saving the world?

Closing my eyes once again, I felt my breathing slow as I let a small smile come to my face. However, as I felt the cold grips of death come around me, I saw something within the deep recesses of my mind. It was...warm, yet also cold. I pushed for a clearer picture, visions flashing across my mind as I saw a land covered in fire. Molten rock flowing like a river and ancient buildings that were somehow still standing despite it all. I felt drawn to it and, upon looking closer, I saw a giant mountain with lava pouring out. A volcano, I believe it was called, and I felt my pull become strongest from inside.

The world then shifted, and I was now greeted with a snowy forest. With the snow going up to my knees, all was quiet as not even the wind blew. I suddenly heard the crunching of snow. I turned toward it and was greeted to pale, icy-blue eyes that looked right at me. My body froze as I looked at what could only be described as winter given form, with skin like ice, and a cold blank face. I tried to move but found my body unwilling as the thing started to come closer to me. My body allowing me to put up a useless guard. As it reached out for me, I screamed.

My eyes shot open. I gasped as I looked around and found myself still in the darkness. How I was still alive, I don't know, but I wasn't going to question it. Whatever that winter-thing was, it was unnatural, dare I say the closest thing to evil that I ever felt. There was also something telling me that it was more than just a dying boy's hallucination. So, with my free arm and a lot of effort, I was able to free my right arm and, even though it felt like I was chained to a fallen boulder, I was able to get up. Giving a wince after putting to much pressure on my left leg, I gripped my left side as I looked around, trying to find anything I could do. Anything that I could use to escape this dark pit.

As if answering my plea, a light broke through the dark veil to my right. I had to shield my arms at first, but, eventually, my eyes were able to adjust enough so the light didn't burn them. Seeing no other option, I limped towards the light, doing my best to put as little weight on my left leg as I could.

I reached a hallway that looked older than anything I have ever seen. But what was really surprising, was the fact that there was light actually coming from a small, but strong blue flame in what looked to be a basin. Nearing the basin, I looked inside to see...ironwood? But how was ironwood down here? Ironwood trees could only be found even further north of the castle, and even then, there was only one hold that had them up there. In fact, how was there fire? Ironwood was hard to even light, and there were plenty of other kinds of wood that were better suited for the job of fueling a fire meant light a hallway. So why even use ironwood? None of this seemed to make sense at all.

My thoughts were cut off when another blue light sprang up in another basin further down the hall, this one bigger and more alive.

Uncertain, but seeing nowhere else to go, I kept limping forward. I followed the trail of blue fire basins, each basin allowing me to see more of the hallway.

Along the walls were strange carvings along with a lot of swirls. There were also indents in them, each holding a spider web covered body in them. I was glad that I couldn't smell them thanks to the smell the smoke from the fires made. I had heard stories about dead bodies smelling, and I wasn't eager to see how true they were.

Eventually, I came to a giant room with eight massive basins lighting up the whole thing. There were two at the entrance with me, two in the middle, and two at the end. The basins all lined up to lead to a massive wall. In-between the gaps of the basins there were murals on each side of what I guess were deities. Did this mean this was a crypt used by the first men? Possibly before they adopted the old gods? If so, this must have meant that this place has stood since The Age of Heros. If only the maester could see this. He might faint.

Limping to the giant wall on the far side of the room, I looked to see that there was a remarkably metal emblem of a ruby-eyed wolf. Tracing my bloody hand over it, I watched in astonishment as the ruby eyes began to glow. Suddenly, the emblem pushed itself in with a click, and a portion stone wall in front of me began to slowly sink into the floor to reveal another room.

Once the wall had fully descended, there was another click. I took that as a signal to move forward and limped through.

Inside the room, it felt like the darkness I had known before. Unlike there, however, there was a hole in the ceiling letting the light of the moonshine threw. In the center of the moonlight stood a large statue that was withered by time with what looked like an equally withered stone direwolf by its side. This could only be the ancestor of the Stark kings. It might even be Bran the Builder himself. At their feet was a pedestal of stone with an amulet made of silver and a big ruby in the center.

Taking a closer look at it, I could see that the amulet was a silver wolf's head with ruby eyes, and the big ruby was in the wolf's mouth. Inside the big ruby was what looked like the Targaryen symbol, a three-headed dragon.

Picking up the amulet, I felt the need to put it on. Since my instincts hadn't lead me astray so far, I put it over my neck. When I did, the stone pedestal rose up until another click sounded from somewhere. It was then that I notice the glow from the amulet, the areas on the statues where the eyes would be, began to glow as well. A bright light suddenly flashed, forcing me to cover my eyes. My body felt like it was on fire while I was blinded by the light, and I found myself unable to even scream, even as my mouth opened up to do so.

Thankfully, the light faded. When I opened my eyes, the room was brightly lit by torches and basins alike, all holding the same blue flame. Now in front of me was a restored statue, though the direwolf was now missing.

 **You have gained a familiar!**

"Seven Hells!" I screamed while jumping at the blue box that appeared in front of me.

When my mind finally took in the blue box in front of me, I realized something. Ever since my fall earlier, I had been limping in pain. When I had jumped, however, I didn't feel any pain. In fact, I didn't feel any pain at all. Looking at my right arm, I was shocked by the fact that it was completely healthy as opposed to broken as it had been before. A quick look at my side revealed the same. If it wasn't for the blood stain it would almost be like nothing happened there in the first place.

"H..how?" I asked.

As if in response to my question, another box appeared.

 **HP has been fully restored upon activation of** _ **The Game**_ **.**

" _Gods damn, it can this thing just go away?"_ I thought angrily.

Surprising enough. The box disappeared **,** leaving just the first one that was there.

"Uh… make this one go away too," I said, and, following my orders, the first blue screen disappeared too.

"What is this," I asked aloud, bewilderment coloring my voice, "some kind of magic?"

Another blue box appeared, this one answering my question.

 **Welcome, player, to** _ **The Game**_ **!**

" _The what?"_

 _ **The Game**_ **is a special type of magic made by the gods to grant their champions the ability to reach their fullest potential.**

 **Do you accept?**

 **Y/N**

 **(Tap the Y for yes and N for no)**

I stared at the box for a minute, weighing my options eventually I pressed the Y symbol.

 **Great! Now, are you a boy or girl?**

 **B/Y**

"What!? I am a boy of course!"

Honestly, what sort of question was that? The box seemed to have heard me, though, as it disappeared before I could press the B symbol to affirm what was most definitely obvious.

 **Okay, please wait a moment while your information is processed….**

 **Process complete! You have been discovered to have both Stark and Targaryen blood! Given the ability** Wolf's Blood **,** Dragon Blood **,** Valyrian Magic **,** First Men Magic **,** Children of the Forest Magic **,** Dragon Dreams **, and** Skin Changer **. Due to your Targaryen side, you have been given** Martell Blood! **, Giving you the skills** Unbroken Sun Spear **and** Rhoynar Magic **. Also due to your Stark side, you have been discovered to have blood of Manderly and, by extension, House Gardner and House Lannister. However, since House Gardner is now extinct, they shall be replaced with House Tyrell. Sorry about that. With the Blood of House Lannister and House Tyrell, you have been given the ability** Roses Thorns **,** Lion's Tongue **, and** Andel Magic **. With the blood of five different groups in your veins, you have been given the skill Of Five Bloods.**

 **Please wait a moment while your character sheet is pulled up.**

What the seven hells is going on? How the hell do I have any relations with the Lannisters and Tyrells? The Martells I could understand, as that was thanks to Targaryen... _traditions_. The Martell blood would remain unaffected by outside blood because of that. But Lannister and Tyrell? While it was true that Manderly's married into the Starks after being exiled from the Reach, and that they, in turn, had descendants from the Gardners, they were far long into the past. Any blood from them would have been diluted by the blood from the Starks. My musing was cut off by another blue box appearing.

 **Jon|Aegon Targaryen**

 **Level: 1**

 **Title: The Bastard of Winterfell**

 **Hp: 100/100**

 **Sp: 100/100**

 **Mp: 100/100**

 **Exp: 0/100**

 **Str: 8**

 **Dex: 6**

 **Vig: 10**

 **Int: 5**

 **Wis: 6**

 **Chr: 4**

 **Luck: 3**

 **[Ability points 0]**

 **Combat Skills** **[0 Skill Points available]**

 **One-Handed: Level 14**

 **Two-handed: Level 12**

 **Block: Level 10**

 **Archery: Level 12**

 **Heavy armor: Level 10**

 **Light armor: Level 16**

 **Stealth Skills** **[0 Skill Points available]**

 **Alchemy: Level 10**

 **Pickpocketing: Level 10**

 **Lock Picking: Level 10**

 **Sneak: Level 18**

 **Speech: Level 11**

 **Perception: Level 10**

 **Magic Skills** **[0 Skill Points available]**

 **Elemental Magic: Level 10**

 **Illusion Magic: Level 10**

 **Spirit & Body Magic: Level 10**

 **Conjuration: Level 10**

 **Holy Magic: Level 10**

 **Enchanting: Level 10**

 **Perks: [Perk Points 0]**

 **Gamers Mind: Grants immunity to being negative mental effects.**

 **Gamers Body: Grants the body the ability to heal from any wound while Hp is more that 0.**

 **Observe: Lets you see the level and stats of any creature that you see.**

 **Wolf's Blood: Grants immunity to the cold and ability to tame Direwolves.**

 **Dragon Blood: Grants immunity to fire and ability to tame Dragons.**

 **Lion's Tongue: Get a +1 to charisma and a 10% bonus exp to Speech.**

 **Roses Thorns: 10% Bonus against the opposite sex.**

 **Unbroken Sun Spear: When your Hp is dropped to 0 it will instead be dropped to 1 once per day.**

 **Rhoynar Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Enchanting.**

 **Valyrian Magic: You have 10% bonus affiliation with Illusion & Conjuration Magic.**

 **First Men Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Soul & Body Magic.**

 **Andel Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Holy magic.**

 **Children of the Forest Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Elemental Magic.**

 **Of Five Bloods: Gain a 20% Bonus Affiliation to all types of magic.**

 **Dragon Dreams: Semi-Prophetic dreams that have a ten percent chance of happening each time you sleep.**

 **Warging: Ability to warg into beasts or humans you have bonded with.**

 **Bastard: -10% relations with all nobles that aren't from Dorn, +10% relations with common folk and other bastards.**

 **? [Unlocked after quest]**

 **Agile Defender: 20% Bonus Exp to Light armor.**

 **The Prince That Was Promised: 20% exp bonus and 30% increased rep with the followers of R'hllor (Must know you are the promised prince for this to take effect).**

 **Stark Born: 10% bonus rep to all northerners.**

 **Northern born: Have an easier time to memorize things in the north and finding loot.**

 **Blood of the First Men: 5% bonus to the Children of the Forest and other First Men, -5% to all those of Andel ancestry.**

 **Blood of the Andels: 5% Bonus to other Andels and -5% to First Man.**

 **Blood of the Rhoynar: 5% Bonus to other Rhoynar.**

 **Blood of Valyria: 5% Bonus to other Valyrians.**

 **Stealth: 20% harder to detect while sneaking.**

 **Summon Familiar: Able to summon your familiar.**

Well, at least I know the name I was born with. Giving a small smile at that, it quickly turned to a scowl as I looked at the low numbers I had. Surely I was better than...whatever this was saying I was. But if this was made by the gods, then I guess that means it was true. Now how do I get rid this thing? Walking around with a big blue box in my face would be far more irritating than it was worth.

 **To learn how the game works. Would you like to see the tutorial?**

 **Y/N**

I nodded and tapped _Yes_.

 **Welcome to the tutorial. To begin, please touch your amulet and say or think "pause".**

Doing as told, I grabbed the amulet.

" _Pause._ "

The effect was immediate as I felt the world slow to a crawl, then stop altogether. It was an...experience.

"Seven Hells," I breathed.

I could see every single piece of dust stop where they were, and the roaring flames now looked like some fancy art pieces. My thoughts were cut off as a high pitched _ding_ was heard.

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **Pausing is a feature you can access while not in combat. While paused, you can check your journal, inventory, your skill or stats, or just simply relax without losing any time in the real world. To get out of being paused, simply move or touch your amulet and think "unpause".**

 **Before doing that, will you please think "Inventory"?**

" _Inventory_ ," I thought hesitantly. I was greeted to a life-like, though smaller, version of myself. Next to both sides of me were boxes, some of them holding the clothes I was currently wearing. Below the my figure and those boxes were ten boxes that were completely empty. In the bottom right lied a small gold coin, silver coin, and bronze coin each lined up in order value.

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **The Inventory is your own personal space that lets you store things you fine without it weighing you down. It also lets you equip your weapons and armor in their respective slots. You have one weapon slot at the start, but you can get more as you go on. For armor slots, you have three slots for your head [Circlet/Crown, Hood, Mask], Four for your chest [Undershirt, Shirt, Armor, Cloak/Cape], two for your feet [Boots, Armored Boots], one slot for your hands [Gloves, Gauntlets], ten slots for rings, and an additional slot for an amulet. There is also a slot for your shield or parrying weapon. [Note: you can not make an attack with your parrying weapon without the corresponding skill]. There is also the ten additional slots with each item being able to hold 999 of a certain item. There is also your coin pouch that can hold an unlimited amount of money without weighing you down. To increase your additional slots, you must increase your Sp [Skill Points]. Every two points put to SP will give you an additional slot.**

 **To continue, please think "Journal".**

" _Journal."_

Suddenly, there was a black book with the amulet embezzled on the cover and a gold spine in my hands.

 _ **The Journal**_ **lets you keep track of any and all quests you have. You also get access to a** _ **Bestiary**_ **, which will allow you to look up any information on any beasts or monsters that you encounter or learn about during your journey. You also gain a** _ **Personal Log**_ **, which lets you look at any information of anyone you ever met. You also get a map of the world as well as a local map. To look at a certain section, just think the title of the section. For example, think "Local Map" for the local map.**

Deciding to test it, I thought _"World Map,"_ and watched as the Journal glowed. Upon flipping to the first page, I was greeted to a map of Westeros. I quickly noticed that besides the North, I only had the capitals of the holds. With the North, however, I had the area mostly filled out with towns, roads, forests, lakes, and other items one would wish to find on a map. I also saw that the whole continent of Essos, as well as its surrounding provinces, were dulled out.

I gave a quick thought of _"Local Map"_ next, and all I got out of it was a map of the room I was in, which I saw was circular and had a door to the right (which I saw was to the east, thanks to a compass rose in one of the corners of the page). I also saw what I guessed was me, as I was yet aware of another amulet like the one I was currently wearing, at the same I was currently standing at on the map.

Going through the _Bestiary_ , I realized how little I knew about the beasts of the world. Sure I had a lot of names, but that was really it. There was nothing else.

From what I could gather so far, it seemed that the _Journal_ was not a perfect record of everything in the world, but rather a record of everything I knew or learned of it. This would be incredibly useful if I ever forget something about something.

Finally, I went to the _Personal Log_ , and my breath hitched on the first page. There was a perfectly drawn picture of my mother, and I think I had to agree with Lord Stark when he once said that the statue did her little justice. She had the traditional black hair and grey eyes of the Starks. However, I could almost see the wildness of the she-wolf in her, the spirit that could not be tamed by anyone, coupled with her long hair and soft smile. She looked beautiful. I wiped away the coming tears before my fingers touched the paper. I so desperately wished that she was here right now, if only to feel a mother's love.

I stayed at the page for a couple more minutes before I turned the page. I couldn't help but glare at the name of the next page. Rhaegar Targaryen, my fath-no, that man was not my father! He was a simple sperm donor. Ned, my uncle, was more of a father than he ever could be. And now that I thought about it, I must apologize to him when I get out of here. Closing the _Journal_ I got another _ding_ , followed quickly by another.

 **You Have Gained 10 Exp! For Completing the first part of the tutorial. You have gained 70 Exp! You have leveled up! Please think "Character Sheet".**

" _Character Sheet."_

 **Jon|Aegon Targaryen**

 **Level: 2**

 **Title: The Bastard of Winterfell**

 **Hp: 100/100**

 **Sp: 100/100**

 **Mp: 100/100**

 **Exp: 0/200**

 **Str: 8**

 **Dex: 6**

 **Vig: 10**

 **Int: 5**

 **Wis: 6**

 **Chr: 4**

 **Luck: 3**

 **[Ability points 1]**

 **Combat Skills** **[10 Skill Points available]**

 **One-Handed: Level 14**

 **Two-handed: Level 12**

 **Block: Level 10**

 **Archery: Level 12**

 **Heavy armor: Level 10**

 **Light armor: Level 16**

 **Stealth Skills** **[10 Skill Points available]**

 **Alchemy: Level 10**

 **Pickpocketing: Level 10**

 **Lock Picking: Level 10**

 **Sneak: Level 18**

 **Speech: Level 11**

 **Magic Skills** **[10 Skill Points available]**

 **Elemental Magic: Level 10**

 **Illusion Magic: Level 10**

 **Spirit & Body Magic: Level 10**

 **Conjuration: Level 10**

 **Holy Magic: Level 10**

 **Enchanting: Level 10**

 **Perks: [Perk Points 0]**

 **Gamers Mind: Grants immunity to being negative mental effects.**

 **Gamers Body: Grants the body the ability to heal from any wound while Hp is more that 0.**

 **Observe: Lets you see the level and stats of any creature that you see.**

 **Wolf's Blood: Grants immunity to the cold and ability to tame Direwolves.**

 **Dragon Blood: Grants immunity to fire and ability to tame Dragons.**

 **Lion's Tongue: Get a +1 to charisma and a 10% bonus exp to Speech.**

 **Rose's Thorns: 10% Bonus against the opposite sex.**

 **Unbroken Sun Spear: When your Hp is dropped to 0 it will instead be dropped to 1 once per day.**

 **Rhoynar Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Enchanting.**

 **Valyrian Magic: You have 10% bonus affiliation with Illusion & Conjuration Magic.**

 **First Men Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Soul & Body Magic.**

 **Andel Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Holy magic.**

 **Children of the Forest Magic: You have a 10% bonus affiliation with Elemental Magic.**

 **Of Five Bloods: Gain a 20% Bonus Affiliation to all types of magic.**

 **Dragon Dreams: Semi-Prophetic dreams that have a ten percent chance of happening each time you sleep.**

 **Skinchanger: Ability to warg into beasts or humans you have bonded with.**

 **Bastard: -10% relations with all nobles that aren't from Dorn +10% relations with common folk and other bastards.**

 **? [Unlocked after quest]**

 **Agile Defender: 20% Bonus Exp to Light armor.**

 **The Prince That Was Promised: 20% exp bonus and 30% increased rep with the followers of R'hllor (Must know you are the promised prince for this to take effect).**

 **Stark Born: 10% bonus rep to all northerners.**

 **Northern born: Have an easier time to memorize things in the north and finding loot.**

 **Blood of the First Men: 5% bonus to the Children of the Forest and other First Men, -5% to all those of Andel ancestry.**

 **Blood of the Andels: 5% Bonus to other Andels and -5% to First Man.**

 **Blood of the Rhoynar: 5% Bonus to other Rhoynar.**

 **Blood of Valyria: 5% Bonus to other Valyrians.**

 **Stealth: 20% harder to detect while sneaking.**

 **Summon Familiar: Able to summon your familiar.**

 **Everytime you level up, you get one ability point and ten skill points. With every other level, you get a perk point. An ability point can be used to increase either one of your stats or your HP, SP, or MP. Skill Points are used to increase skills like One-Handed and such. Increasing your skills to a certain point will allow you access to certain perks. Go ahead and put your points into something.**

Blinking owlishly for a second, I looked at my _Character Sheet_ and hummed in thought. Not that it helped me since I still didn't really understand what was going on. I still didn't understand what some of this stuff even meant. Was _Str_ strength? It sounded right, but I still wasn't sure. At least I knew what _Luck_ was. This thing was kind enough to least give me the name of that.

 _ **Str**_ **is Strength,** _ **Dex**_ **is Dexterity,** _ **Vig**_ **is Vigor,** _ **Int**_ **is Intelligence,** _ **Wis**_ **is Wisdom,** _ **Luck**_ **is Luck, and** _ **Chr**_ **is Charisma.** _ **Hp**_ **is Health Points,** _ **Sp**_ **is Stamina Points,** _ **Mp**_ **is Magic Points**

I nodded my head at that. Now that I had at least more information, I was able to make a better guess. Despite the fact that I was still upset that my... _stats_ were low, I still thought that putting the point into _HP_ was the better move. Father always did say the world was dangerous, so any extra health I could get, I would take. As for the _Skill Points,_ I put it all into _One-handed_. The reason? I wanted to see Rob's face when I had a sudden boost in skill. That was how it at least sounded like it did. So, putting the final point in, I was greeted with a _Ding_.

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **Please unpause the game. Also, to close the boxes, either tap the X in the top right corner of them, or simply will them away.**

" _Oh, thank the Old Gods and the New!"_ I thought with great relief. I had thought that I was going have to deal with those boxes for forever. Quickly closing the boxes, I _unpaused_ game as well as given another _ding_ … and another box.

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **While playing the game, you will have access to a compass. The compass will be on the top of your vision, and will show you your active quest markers, custom quest marker, the direction of nearby enemies.**

Closing the box, indeed it was correct as there was now a bar on the top of my vision, must below my eyebrows, that acted as a compass. As I turned my head, the bar would turn as well, showing me where the cardinal directions lay.

I grinned at that. Traveling would be much easier with this. In fact, now that I thought about it, with the compass and the maps I could summon in the _Journal_ , I didn't think I'd be able to get lost at all. The boon this would be on hunting expeditions and even war efforts would be amazing! Still, for this to actually be useful, I needed to leave.

As I looked around, words faded into existence below the compass.

 **Dungeon Crawler**

 _ **Objective: Escape the Dungeon**_

Before I could react to this, another blue box appeared.

 **You have received your first quest. Quests can give you anything from gear to** _ **exp**_ **. To get a more in-depth look at the rewards, go to your Journal.**

After I closed the box, a white marker suddenly appeared on the right edge of my compass. Turning right, I saw the marker start moving left along the compass. I stopped turning the moment the marker was right in the center, and then looked straight ahead. Right in the direction the marker seemed to indicate, I found an old chest that looked ready to fall apart at any second. I walked up to the chest and opened it, getting a notification that I had earned _Exp_ from my action as a reward, and looking inside. I pulled out a bronze sword, some old looking leather armor, and a coin purse. Laying them on the floor next to me, I was shocked when text appeared over them.

 _ **Simple Bronze Sword**_

 _ **Damage: 5**_

 _ **Modifier: Dex**_

 _ **Durability: 50/50**_

 _ **Value: 10 Copper Pennies**_

 _ **Simple Leathers**_

 _ **Protection: 15%**_

 _ **Durability: 50/50**_

 _ **Value: 2 Copper Stars**_

 _ **Money: 10 Copper Halfpennies**_

 **To equip gear, either put it on normally, or put it into your inventory and drag its slot over the corresponding armor slot. To put something into your inventory, simply grab hold of the item and think about putting it in your inventory.**

Doing as _The Game_ told, I closed the blue box, grabbed the leather armor, put it in my inventory. The armor seemed to suddenly shrink as I placed it in one of the boxes below the figure of me. I then grabbed the side of the box and moved it over to my armor slot. Immediately afterward the armor appeared over my shirt and the shirt of my model. It was a simple leather chest plate with leather straps around my arms and legs to keep it in place.

I heard another _ding_ , and the marker moved to the door. I took meant that to mean it was time to leave. Walking through the doorway, I was greeted to the sight of the same lit room I was in before I entered the circular room. Seeking to retrace my steps, I walked back through the room, and walked down the hallway I had limped through before.

I froze as I heard a grunt behind me. I turned and watched in horror as one of the corpse _pulled_ _itself_ out of its resting place. I could feel fear trying to overtake me, a odd feeling to experience, as it turned to look at me with two glowing blue orbs in its eye sockets while holding a large axe. The body tried to speak but all that came out was a choking grunt like sound.

 **White: Lvl 1**

 **HP 100**

 **SP: 100**

 **Resistances: None**

Suddenly the world froze as a blue screen appeared with a _ding_.

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **You have just entered combat. When in combat there are two phases: the attack phase and the defense phase. During the defense phase, you can either block or dodge your opponent's attack. Or you could run. During the attack phase, you can either attack with a weapon or with a spell.**

 **However be warned, when in the attack phase, your opponent can also block or dodge your attack.**

 **Get ready!**

The world returned to life as the white came at me with an overhead swing. But thanks to my training with Rodrik, I was able to dodge in time and continue to follow my instincts as I went for a slash across the side. My blade found purchase in the flesh as it carved out the side of the corpse. It gave a grunt of pain and counter-attacked me. I saw the attack coming and moved to dodge. Unfortunately, I was too slow, and the grip of the ax bashed across my skull. The blow dazed for a second, and white pressed its attack with a slash directed at my chest. Luckily, I was able to duck under the swipe thanks to my small stature. I firmed up my grip on the handle of my sword and gave a roar as I thrust blade into monster's gut. The white gave a sound of what I could only guess was surprise before it's body crumpled to the ground.

I was breathing a little heavy as I looked at the now once again corpse.

" _Was- was that a White?"_ I thought shakily to myself, " _I thought those things were a myth? Like the White Walkers."_

Father _needed_ to hear of this.

 _Ding_.

 **You have gained 10 Exp for killing a White!**

 **You have killed your first enemy! You can loot their body and see if you can find anything useful.**

Kneeling at the body, I rather hesitantly searched it. The only thing I could find of use was a single copper piece, which I quickly placed in my _inventory_. I got another _ding_ , but I ignored it as I kept walking through the dungeon. I couldn't afford any distractions.

Now more than wary of what might come out to get me. I moved slowly as I held my sword at the ready in my hands. I stopped as I saw a few more Whites pulled themselves from their resting places. However, unlike the last one, I was prepared for them and quickly cut them down before they could finish getting out. This wasn't a simple training session, this was a real fight, and I held no illusion that honorable combat against a corpse would be a worthwhile endeavor. I was able to find three copper pennies in total for my efforts, along with an old brittle bow and a couple of arrows.

I continued along, not finding any more white until I turned around a corner. I saw two whites standing with their backs towards me, unaware of my presence as they watched a door at the end of the hallway. Before I could take advantage of their obliviousness, _another_ blue screen appeared.

 **You have snuck up on two enemies, letting you get a surprise phase. A surprise phase lets you get a free attack phase. You can get a surprise by either stunning or sneaking up on opponents.**

Willing the screen away, I pulled out the bow and drew an arrow, thankful I for the attention I paid in my archery lessons. I Lined up my shot to hit the chest of the white on the right. I wasn't confident enough to aim for the head just yet, and I would only have one shot before the two whites noticed me. Letting loose the arrow, I quickly put away my bow and drew my sword from its scabbard. The arrow found purchase in the white's left shoulder, but, to my surprise, it still went down from what should have been a non lethal strike. A shot like that would have hurt, but the shoulder blade should have prevented the arrow from striking the heart, the only organ aside from the brain that would result instant death when struck. My unspoken question was quickly answered as time slowed down and a blue screen popped up.

 **You have performed a sneak attack. A sneak attack doubles the damage an enemy takes. This effect also happens when an opponent is stunned.**

 **Also, some enemies, like undead, will be killed by having enough damage dealt to it, no matter where it was dealt.**

 **Only significant enemies and humans require damage done to specific body parts to kill them. However, general damage done will still weaken them.**

I quickly read the box, closed it, and blocked the sword swing from the other white as time sped back up to normal. I was too close to it to be able to use the blade with any worthwhile force. However, I had learned one move from Rob that always frustrated me whenever he used it, and this was the perfect opportunity to use it myself. I slammed the pommel into the white's face. With the undead stepping back stunned, I quickly capitalized on both its stunned status and the fact that it was not within ideal swinging range of my sword, lobbing the monster's head off from its shoulders. Its body crumpled onto itself.

 _Ding._

 **You have gained 20 Exp.**

Closing the box, I looted the bodies, getting a halfpenny and a copper, giving me a total of eleven halfpennies and five copper pennies. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my arrow back. Or rather, I did, but old wood of the arrow snapped as I pried it out of the white's body, leaving me with five arrows.

On the bright side, the _Local Map_ , as well as the quest marker, and my limited memory for when I was here before, told me that the hallway I had walked into after I had fallen down the pit in the catacombs was on the other side of the door before me. Walking to the doorway, I found that I was indeed back in the hallway where this mess had all started.

However, instead of seeing the all-encompassing darkness around where I had fallen, there were now basins full of fire lighting the area. I could see where I had fallen thanks the faint outline in the dried blood on the ground.

If I wasn't thankful for _The Game_ healing me before, I definitely was now. I wasn't sure how long I would have lasted with how much blood I could see that I had lost, never mind the whites running around down here. I also saw that luck was in my favor even before I had grabbed that amulet as saw an underground river just a few feet to the left of where I had fallen. How did I not hear it before? Then again, I was a bit delirious at the time.

I walked to the edge of the river to try and look for the hole I had fallen from. Worry spread through my body as I searched for about a minute with absolutely no success. I couldn't find the hole! Not only that, but I couldn't even find the stone that broke my arm, nor the ones that fell with me. How could they have disappeared? And why did I have a feeling that I would not like the answer?

Well, the only thing left for me to do was to follow the marker. It seemed to direct me to a cave entrance, this one completely dark. Thinking better than going in blind, I looked into one of the basins in the room and decided to test to see if my perks actually did what they said. Specifically, my **Dragon Blood** perk.

I slowly reached my hand into the basin, ready to pull it out the moment I felt even a hint of pain. I could feel warmth from the flame, but, just as the perk said, the fire did nothing to me as I held my hand directly inside it. I did notice that the sleeve of my leather armor wasn't taking so kindly to the fire, though, so I quickly grabbed a sizable piece of ironwood to act as a makeshift torch for me, and pulled it out

My new blue torch now in hand, I walked into the cave entrance. Once inside, I felt quite a bit of unease as I saw spider webs. However, it wasn't the sheer amount of spider webs that made me uneasy, although it did contribute. No, what really made me uneasy was the sheer size and thickness of the webs. I recalled the explanation for the **Gamer's Mind** perk and guessed that extreme fear counted as a negative mental effect.

Clearing some of the thick webbings with my torch, I moved forward with cautious footsteps. It was that very cation that alerted me to the sound of skittering as I rolled to the side, making sure I didn't roll on top of or into any of the webs. I turned to face the source of the skittering, only to freeze as a giant white spider was staring at me.

"Seven Hells," I swore.

The thing was about the size of a horse, with its fangs being the size of daggers at least. Not to mention all the eyes that it was used to stare at me. It was one ugly beast.

 **Ice Spider: Lvl 5**

 **HP: 130**

 **SP: 120**

 **Resistances: Ice**

 **Vulnerabilities: Fire**

Well, good thing I brought the torch. Dodging another leap from the spider. I hacked one of its legs with my sword, the leg coming clean off as it screamed in pain. It tried to use another leg to kick me, which I responded with a block using my torch. I was startled, however, when the spider caught on fire as a result. Screeching in pain it turned and tried to scurry away. Fat chance! I was not going to let something like that roam around while I was in here. Bellowing out a warcry, I ran at it and stabbed its side. The ice spider giving a dying hiss before dropping dead.

 _Ding._

 **You have earned 50 Exp.**

"And good riddance," I spat.

Searching its body, I didn't find any coin, which was what I was expecting. However, I did not expect find some phials on the ground where its blood spilled.

 _ **Ice Spider Venom:**_

 _ **Causes 5 points of frost and poison damage**_

 _ **50% chance to paralyze**_

 _ **Can be applied to weapon**_

 _ **Value: 30 Copper Pennies**_

Scowling at the phial, I threw it away and continued my trek. I would never use such a dirty tactic and call myself a Stark.

Eventually, I came across another door, this one opening up into another clearing. Though, to be honest, it looked like an extension of the dungeon. The only difference between this room and the one before was that there was a single coffin standing in the center of a clearing with the light from a natural skylight being the only illuminating presence. I did not like the feeling of this at all. It felt like a trap, but I couldn't place my finger on how or why. Still, my instincts hadn't led me wrong so far, so I wasn't about to dismiss now. I kept my guard up with my sword out, and I stepped out into the clearing. I no sooner did so when the coffin opened up to release a women with skin of ice and hair white. She was wearing tattered robes, had bright blue eyes, and an alluring, yet wrong, smile as she gazed at me.

"Jon…" A soothing voice said, and I felt a strange presence attempt to take hold of me. I was able to shake it off though, thankful even more so to **Gamer's Mind** as what almost happened most definitely counted as a negative mental effect, and I realized that voice was the same as the one that had enchanted me earlier when I knelt before the statue of my mother. I glared at the women and pointed my sword at her.

"Not this time," I said.

The women flinched back in surprise before her face twisted into a snarl. Then, with a sound similar ice cracking, she moved.

 **Shard of the Night Queen: Lv 8**

 **HP 120**

 **MP 220**

 **SP: 100**

 **Resistances: Ice**

She gave an ear piercing screech, causing me to cover my ears in an attempt to block out the noise. The pain quickly fled, however, and I caught sight of the shard grinning as ice formed around her hands. She thrust her hands at me, and a blast of ice hurtled in my direction. I braced myself for the impact and the expected cold, but was surprised when I felt no pain. I even found no damage to armor as I quickly looked at where it had been struck. I smirked. Not saying anything, I rushed toward the shard and swung my sword. I was surprised once again, but not because of unexpected good fortune as the shard floated into the air. Before I could do anything about it, another ice shard hit my chest, this one bigger than before. While I took no damage, it did knock the wind out of me. The shard flew down and with her hand drawn back to scratch at me with what were very clearly claws. I blocked the swipe with my torch, hoping to catch her on fire like I had with the spider. While she did flinch at the burn inflicted from the flame, she did not catch on fire. Quickly thinking, I headbutted her before she recovered from the flinch. Shocked by my action, the queen had no time to prepare, and was stunned from the blow from my head. After shaking off the little black dots in my own vision, I slashed with my sword. I didn't quite hit her, but I didn't miss either. The tip of my sword was still able to cut into her a little, resulting in the sound of ice breaking and cracking in a manner that made my ears hurt. I ignored the pain as I stepped back, dodging a slash from the shard as she screamed in her own pain.

I saw her then turn and run. I was not going to let this witch continue running around luring anyone else from the castle down here. I quickly swapped my sword with my bow, I lined up a shot, and fired. The arrow managed to hit the shard right between the shoulder blades. The shard fell to her knees letting out a dying screech as cracks originating from the spot the arrow stood out from her spine raced all across her body. Suddenly, she body exploded into a bunch of ice shards.

I saw book drop to the ground where the shard was with a small thud.

 _Ding._

 **You have gained 80 Exp! You have Leveled Up!**

Closing the screen and holsering my bow, I walked up to the book and picked it up.

 **You have picked up a spell book! Spell Books let you learn spells. The current book you have is** Frostbite **. Would you like to learn it?**

 **Y/N**

I hesitated for a moment, before I nodded and pressed _Yes_. I watched as the words came off the book and were absorbed into my skin. Slowly, the spell book faded from my hands until, as the last of the words were absorbed into my skin, it was completely gone.

 _Ding._

 **You have gained 10 Exp!**

 **You have gained your first spell!** _ **Spell Book**_ **has been added into your** _ **Journal**_ **. To access your spell, open your** _ **Spell Book**_ **and think of which hand you want it to be cast in. That hand will now be holding a spell instead of whatever weapon or shield that was there before.**

Following the instructions, I equipped the spell to my left hand. I took a second to marvel that I was now using magic as I gazed at the small piece of ice in my hand as I put away the _Journal_. Following my instincts, I threw my hand out and watched as a stream of ice spewed out of my hand at a quick place. Quickly cutting it off, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact I just _used_ magic, something that hadn't been done since the age of heros. It was simply incredible. After recovering from my euphoria, I found the quest marker and followed to a doorway with a smile on my face. I couldn't wait to show my father what I could do now. Of course, this would be after I apologized to him for the scare I must have given him.

I stepped out the door, and my good mood quickly vanished as I took in the sight before me. There were no crypts, no Winterfell, or even the snowy tundra. I was now surrounded by grass lands and red mountains. Before I could even question what I was looking at, white text appeared once again.

 _ **Dungeon Crawler {Completed}**_

 _ **Reward: 100 Exp, Frostbite Spell**_

 _ **Dornish Province Discovered**_

 _ **Get Back Home**_

 _ **Objective: Get back home to Winterfell before you turn 16**_

"What in the Seven Hells is going on!" I screamed!

How in the Seven Hells did I go from being in my father's castle in the far north of the continent to being in the absolute southernmost province in just one night? How!?

The only answer I got was to turn around and find door I had just come through suddenly vanish.

"Well that's just great," I grumbled.

 **Hey guys, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. If so be sure to vote for this story in the polls! Until next time this is Journeymen signing off!**

 **Next Chapter:**

 **One Man's Past is another Man's Future**


	4. One man's Past is Another man's Future

**Hello there Internet! Journeymen here with the pilot chapter of One Man's Past is Another Man's Future! I hope you all enjoy it! Now without further ado let's get this ball rolling!**

 **Beta: Grano_Onis**

* * *

My lungs felt like they were on fire as I and the rest of the members of RWBY and JN_R ran along the bottom of a gorge in Vacuo, the moon proving us with plenty of light despite the cloudy sky. The relic of destruction was strapped to my back, Crocea Mors was broken, Qrow was holding an unconscious Oscar on his back, Ruby was clutching her bloody shoulder, and Blake was trying to push past the pain of a recently removed ear.

There was a distant roaring as a huge blast of fire was coming our way. Yang turned on her heel and cocked both her arms back. Her eyes went red before she fired off a semblance fueled shot from her gauntlets, her robotic arm being demolished from the force of the blast. However, the shot accomplished its job of stopping the fireball. As the two balls of blazing heat collided with each other, magic and dust resulted in a massive explosion that shook the ground and nearly took us off our feet. However, that did not stop the next blast of fire coming right at us.

Weiss acted fast and, using the last of her earth dust, she erected a wall of thick rock. Her aura shimmered before shattering as a result of this. The wall of stone held, tough, and was met with another roar.

"T-that's not going to hold them for long," Weiss managed to get out before her strength failed her and she fell onto a knee, forced to use her rapier as a prop to stay up. I immediately went over to her and activated my semblance, refueling her aura as much as I could. Unfortunately, even my reserves were running low, and I could only get her to about, maybe, six percent. We just didn't have enough time.

"We have to get to Ironwood," Ruby said, also trying to keep herself up with her weapon. Her right eye closed thanks to a cut above it that her aura had yet to heal. She tried to push herself to keep moving, but she stumbled. The only thing keeping her off the ground was a tired Nora who caught her.

"We won't be able to make it in time," Blake said, and I could hear the hope of escape leaving her voice. The others didn't look any different. I grit my teeth as my nails bit into my palm.

" _C'mon, Jaune, you got to think of something,"_ I said mentally.

"Well," Yang said, a small smile on her face as she laid down on the ground defeated, "Can't say we didn't try."

I felt blood leak out of my palms, I was clenching my fist so tight.

" _You have to think of something!"_ I mentally shouted, but my mind was drawing blanks. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my arm. Looking down, I saw Weiss, who gave me a small sad smile. I felt my hand relaxed, as Weiss took my hand in hers.

"Jaune," Weiss said, her words comforting, "It's fine. We tried our best."

I looked around. I could see Ren and Nora holding each other. Blake sat next to Yang, the two just looking defeated. Ruby was still trying to push onward. But this time, Nora wasn't there to catch her when she fell. So fall she did. Then she broke down and started to cry, her Uncle coming over to comfort her as best as he could.

My eyes returned to Weiss, who held a kindness in them that I always had known was there, but had rarely seen until after Beacon. Till after everything started to go to hell. Till after _her_ death.

Suddenly, Weiss was no longer there. Her white hair was replaced with an autumn red. Her pale blue eyes a vibrant green. I saw the visage of Pyrrha on that terrible a day. That day when she sent me flying into a locker so she could go fight a battle she knew she wouldn't win, leaving me to feel weak and helpless.

Then I remembered when I saw Weiss again. How we all reconnected at Haven. How Weiss was impaled by Cinder; of how, if it were not for my semblance, I would have lost Weiss too. I was too weak. To save Pyrrha, and I was almost too weak to save Weiss.

I looked to Weiss, her snow-white hair and blue eyes back on her face. I then looked back to the rest of my friends. Pulling Weiss up, I embraced her, and she embraced me. I pulled away to look at Weiss.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

I pushed her towards the others, grabbed the relic from my back and held it up into the air. Oscar, who had been informed by Ozpin, had told us how to use the relics. To use a relic's power, one must simply speak its name.

"Ryuu." I commanded. The relic glowed with power before I slashed at the earth right in front of me. The effect was exactly as I had hoped for: the might of the relic made by one of the brother gods himself. The ground in front of me split in two before pushing itself apart creating a thirty-foot chasm that no one could cross.

"Jaune!" Weiss screamed out.

"I'll hold them off! You guys keep moving forward." I yelled back, a smile on my face.

"Jaune you can't!"

"Vomit Boy what are you thinking?"

"Jaune!"

"God damn it kid get over here!"

"Jaune, please!"

"It's too late," I called out, "I can't make that jump you all have to go without me."

"Jaune," Ren cried out, "Pyrrha wouldn't want you to go out like this!"

"I'm not doing this for Pyrrha!" I snapped. "I have always been too weak. I was too weak to get into Beacon, too weak to stand up for myself against Cardin, too weak to help Pyrrha, and I was almost too weak to save Weiss!" I yelled back, not even realizing that tears were in my eyes. "I will be damned if I am too weak to keep my friends from dying here in the middle of a fucking desert."

I was breathing heavy. I could see them all looking at me in various stages of shock.

"You guys better get going. I can only hold them off for so long, and that chasm was really meant for you guys." I joked holding a smile before I turned away from them. Facing towards the rubble. Where I saw the fist of a Beringel punch through the earth.

"Go! Now!" I yelled out.

That seemed to snap them out of it. They all reluctantly started to make their way out.

"Jaune!" Weiss cried out. I looked over my shoulder to see her standing there. Crying. "I'm…sorry. I never got to tell you..."

I gave her a wide goofy smile.

"Hey! Cheer up, Snow Angel. Everything going to be just fine." I assured her, she gave a broken laugh as she wiped away some of her tears.

"Goodbye Jaune. I love you." That last part came out as a whisper, and by no right of physics should I have been able to hear it due to the pounding and the roaring from the Grimm. But I did.

"I love you too." I whispered back, before getting into position. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Weiss leave.

I gave a hollow laugh. "Well, Jaune, that leaves you O for two with relationships. Guess I didn't show enough confidence." I looked out to the rock wall to see it breaking down. "Well, might as well lend them a hand." I held the sword up. "Ryuu!"

I then slashed downwards, and from the blade came destruction as the Rock wall and any and all Grimm were obliterated and turned into dust. All but two things. Or should I say, people? No, things work. Walking in her long dark robes was Salem, who had a magical shield around herself.

Next to her, covered in a similar shield, was the body of a woman that was once known as Cinder; now nothing more than a husk, a suit of rotten meat and bones for the Grimm that took her body. All that was damaged by Ruby's silver eyes was completely transformed while the rest was skin that as pale as her master's. On her left side, the side Ruby's eyes had damaged, one could see the remains of her organs that were kept in place by black bones. Her right eye shined with the powers of the maiden. But I knew that there was only a sliver of the women in there, only being kept alive so that the maidens power would stay in the body. It probably hurt like hell.

"Oh Cinder, you're looking good." I joked. The body remained unresponsive, but I saw the one good eye glare at me.

"So," Salem mused, "You decided to stay behind to save your friends? How noble." Her voice was thick with sarcasm.

"Actually, I just wanted to see what Ozpin ever saw in you. Frankly, I just don't see the appeal." I taunted.

Salem gave me a glare before a smirk appeared on her face. "You are brave. Foolish, but brave." She then looked at the relic in my hand and gave an amused look. "I see, you think a relic has the power to destroy me?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, destruction is in the name, so."

She actually snorted in amusement. "Ah, so the fool has some jokes. And I'm in so dire need of a jester in my court." She then held out her hand. "Come, fool. Hand over the relic, and I shall let you live."

I gave her a disbelieving look. "You really expect me to believe that?" I asked.

She smiled. "Hmm? Perhaps you need more _insurance_." She said, with a hint of a seductive tone.

I gave her a flat look. "How was it that you were able to charm kings?" I asked.

She frowned at that. "Very well. Cinder if you would."

I saw the body bow to its master, and, from what I could see, the fragment of Cinder's mind looked happy to carry out this order. The maiden formed a sword in her hand before lunging towards me at inhuman speeds. I was barely able to put up my shield in time as her blade scraped up my shield, the force of the impact blowing away the dust around us. I tilted my shield to throw her off balance, but she struck at me with the claws from her Grimm arm, forcing me to use my aura to block the claws. I then went for a stab with the relic, but the body used the maiden powers to summon some wind to push us both apart.

"Ryuu!" I shouted, sending out a blast of destructive energy. Before the blade entered its cooldown of thirty seconds, Cinder tried to make a shield with her magic. However, she was only a maiden, someone who had only a quarter of Ozma's original power. It was nothing compared to the power of a relic. The shield turned to dust, and Cinder eyes went wide before she too was hit by the wave of destruction. I watched in satisfaction as her body slowly started to turn into dust.

My satisfaction quickly turned to ash as the body of Cinder shattered like glass and was replaced by that of a familiar, petite assassin.

"You didn't honestly think I would send my maiden against a relic wielder, did you?" Salem asked bemusedly.

I turned to glare at her, only to notice that Cinder was not here at all. Realization hit me as I turned back to where my friends had gone.

"Oh, I'm afraid it will be too late for them," Salem said, "Not even that silver eyed girl will be able to save them this time."

My grip tightened as I turned back to the pale witch. "You...bitch." I growled out.

Salem smirked, "Such a foolish thing to say."

Before I could blink, my back collided with a wall as an unseen force pressed up against it. Salem held an outstretched hand, her magic holding me in place without its user even breaking a sweat.

"Now, if you will hand over the relic, please." She commanded.

I glared at her. "Never."

I felt a new wave of magic blast me further into the wall. I felt like my bones were all going to shatter, but my aura held strong.

"Honestly," She said, while walking slowly towards me, "I don't think I could ever understand you, _creatures_. The gods wiped out all of humanity and replaced them with you weaker species who could not even use magic, and yet, when we had the chance to replace them with the rightfully superior species, Ozma instead decided to betray our family and damn the both of us to being the last of our kind. All for you. Why?" She asked that last word with a mixture of curiosity, venom, and...pain?

Well… I didn't care.

"It was probably because you're a psycho." I gritted out.

Salem frowned as she got closer. "I think I am tired of that tongue of yours." She said.

I smirked. "Funny you should say that. I'm tired of being pinned up against this wall." With that, I channeled my semblance, and I felt her magic lose its grip on me. A fun fact I had learned: while using aura, magic has a lesser effect on you; and with a semblance like mine, I could completely negate its effects on me or others. Now, Salem was too close to back away in time.

"Ryuu!" I called out as I made to slash her chest. Salem made to form a magic shield, but she was too late. The sword cut into and then severed her arm. Her body then slowly turned to dust. Salem started to scream in pain.

"That's for my friends." I declared. Then I felt my aura shatter and I was forced to use the sword as a crutch I fell to my knees.

"DAMM IT!" I screamed. I punched the ground with as much force as I could muster. "DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!" I yelled with every word being actuated by a punch. "Why? Why wasn't I fucking strong enough!" I ignored my bleeding knuckles as I tears escaped my eyes. "I had just one job to do. ONE FUCKING JOB! Stall so that my friends could escape, and what happens? I am the only one FUCKING LEFT! What kinds of sick joke is this shit?"

The heavens seemed to answer as the rain started to pour down from gathering storm clouds. I didn't care though. All I cared about was that my friends were now most likely dead. It could rain as long as it wanted in the desert. I didn't care anymore.

"I know your pain." A sympathetic, vile voice said. I looked towards the pile of ash to see that Salem was there once again. Before I could even make a move. I felt her magic, grab a hold of me, locking me in place. "I know what it is like, to lose someone you love." She said, taking slow methodical steps towards me, "To try everything in your power, only for it to not matter in the end." She knelt down and I felt her icy cold fingers grab my chin and force me to look into her beady red eyes. They actually held sympathy.

"I know your pain child, and that's why I offer you one last chance. Join me, and I shall help you get revenge on those who wronged you." She said.

I glared at her. "Who would that be?" I spat.

She smirked. "Why, the very gods themselves who bring pain for those undeserving. Those who seek to own us when they lost the right long ago." She stated.

I laughed. It was a bitter, empty laugh. It was all I could manage.

"You know something?" I asked, looking directly into those red orbs, "I think you just described yourself perfectly."

Salem frowned. "I see." She then rose, grabbing the relic from my hand as she did so. "You have made your choice my child. I hope you find solace in the kingdom eternal."

She then rose the blade to make a decapitating swing. I closed my eyes, whispering one final word.

"Goodbye."

* * *

With that, I felt the blade hit my neck for a split second before all I knew was the sweet embrace of death.

…

…

…

Why don't I feel any different?

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted to... Well, nothing but darkness. Strangely enough, though, I could see my own body in perfect clarity.

" **So you are finally awake.** " A deep, dark voice said.

I was then greeted to the sight of a man at least twelve feet tall and ram horns on his head. His entire body a dark purple, and his face possessing no features at all. It was almost as if someone just made an outline of a ram Faunus and had yet to make their features.

"W-where am I?" I asked.

The being looked displeased. I don't know how, but it did.

" **Foolish boy,"** It said, **"You have died, and you are now surrounded by eternal darkness. Where do you think?** "

My eyes widened as memories of my last moments came into my head. My hands then curled up into a fist.

"Gods damn it!" I yelled out.

I felt the featureless figure glare at me.

" **Do not curse me when I am in front of you, boy.** "

I froze up. "You-your?"

The being nodded his head. " **Yes, mortal. I am the God of Darkness, Brother to the God of Light,"** He said before he transformed into a mighty dragon, **"And it would be wise for you** _ **not**_ **to test me.** "

He then transformed back into his imposing twelve-foot tall figure. " **Now, boy, there is a reason for you being here**."

I gulped. "W-why is that?" I asked. And I, once again felt, not seen, _felt_ the deity smile as he reaches out his hands, palms up.

" **To make a deal**." Then, out from his hands sprouted four items: a shield, much like my own, with ram horns on the upper corners; a ring with a red jewel that was held by a pair of red horns that also acted as the band; a necklace with a silver chain, the bottom having three silver discs with their own unique engravings and swirls with purple gems in the center of them; and, finally, a full suit of armor without the helmet. The pauldrons had two ram horns on each side that curved downward near the forearm but managed to stay out of the way, and an exact copy of the head of the god's dragon form on the chest plate.

" **My brother has seen fit to undermine me by creating relics of his own power after resurrecting Ozma, an act in which he abhorred when I did it. So, I seek to do the same to him to restore balance to the world you call Remnant. I shall resurrect you, and gift this world with relics of my own.** " He then sucked the relics back into himself. " **Do we have a deal?** "

I wanted to say yes. In fact, I almost did right away, but something was telling me to wait, to think this through, and, more importantly, ask some questions.

"Why me," I asked, "and what's the catch?"

The god let out a laugh. " **Ah good, you are cautious. The reason I choose you is that you hold some unique opportunities to entertain me. The catch is that I can not simply gift you the relics all at once. Even now, my brother is surely coming to try and stop me from restoring balance in the way that is not in his favor. So, I can only give you one. Now, choose wisely.** "

He then resummoned each of the relics, all four of them floating in a rotating circle in between us. I looked each of them over.

"What do they do?" I asked.

The God of Darkness first picked up the shield. " **This is the Relic of Strength. It allows the user to have the strength needed to conquer the hardships of life. I have also taken inspiration from your weapon. Its command word is Ryoto.** " To show what he meant, the shield then suddenly collapsed into a sheath, the ram horns acting as the rim on the top. He then turned it back to a shield before sending back to rotate with the other relics.

He then picked up the ring. " **This is the Relic of Change. It lets you shed off your old self and become someone new. Something better. Its command word is Varen.** "

He then returned the ring and grabbed the necklace. I could sense a small iota of pride in his voice as he described this one. " **This is the Relic of Emotion. It lets you control all that makes life worth living. Its command word is Oaklee.** "

I gasped as I took another look at the necklace. To think something like that could control one's emotions. Something that makes someone human. IT was scary. However, the god either did not notice or care as he returned necklace and raised up a set of armor.

" **This is the Relic of Resilience. It grants its wearer the power to survive the world's toughest hurdles. Its command word is Balethiva.** "

" **Now boy,"** The god said, returning the armor to the rotating circle of relics, **"Choose. And I would hurry if I was you.** "

I nodded my head dumbly. These things were all dangerous. Without the command phrases, though they would be practically useless, so I didn't have much to worry about it. Still, I didn't know when I would be able to get the other relics, or even how to go about it. I looked to the god for answers, and he seemed to understand my unspoken question.

" **I shall gift you with the power to sense when one of the relics are nearby. Do not worry about someone taking them before you get to them. I will leave insurances so that no one but you shall be able to get them.** "

Those worries assuaged, I looked at each relic. The power to persevere, the power to control emotion, the power to push through life's hurdles, and the power to constantly change into something better. It was a very hard decision. Each one held incredible burdens in their own right. To control one's emotions sounded too much like manipulation to me, and after everything Ozpin pulled, I did not want to deal with that any time soon. The shield was interesting, but I wanted to try and find my sword. It was my ancestor's blade after all, and I didn't want to leave it there in the dirt. I also had to go back there anyway. I had my friends' bodies I needed to bury.

Moving on to the armor, I looked at it with awe. I may not have that much knowledge in forging armor, but I could tell this was possibly one of the best sets I have ever seen. It even had a really good bonus to it. I moved on from it, though, and I considered the ring. If I wanted to beat Salem, I was going to need to constantly adapt, constantly change. Constantly break through barriers thought unbreakable.

Picking up the ring, I slid it onto my finger, and I watched as it magically shifted to fit my finger perfectly. I smirked to myself before looking at the God of Darkness.

"I'm ready." I stated. Now, armed with this ring, I was ready to avenge my friends and stop Salem once and for all. Then, hopefully, I could meet them in the afterlife.

The God of Darkness nodded. " **Very well. Goodbye, Jaune Arc, decedent of Salem and Ozma.** "

I blinked owlishly as my mind processed what the God of Darkness just said

"Wait wha-"

I was cut with a wave of the god's hand, and darkness consumed my vision.

 _God of Darkness Pov…_

I smirked as I looked where he once stood with a smirk. " **This will be fun.** "

I turned around to see my brother standing there, fuming.

" **Brother, "** I said welcomingly, **"What brings you here?** "

He glared at me.

" _What have you done?_ "

I tilted my head. Really? He thought he had the right to be mad at me? Amusing.

" **Whatever do you mean?** " I asked and my brother shook with anger.

" _Don't play coy with me!"_ He yelled, his voice booming, _"Why have you disturbed the balance of that world?_ "

I chuckled. It was fun getting a reaction out of him. He was always so bland. Arrogant, too, and that made it so much better whenever I got the upper hand on him.

" **Disturbed? Why, brother, the way I see it, I was fixing the balance. Your influence was too strong there. I merely put in my own.** "

My brother glared at me. " _Your creatures of Grimm were influencing enough, don't you think?_ "

I deadpanned. " **They might have been had that woman not taken control of them.** "

My brother gave me another look before sighing. " _We are supposed to leave them alone._ "

" **Oh?"** I said, anger entering my voice, **"Is that why you have two immortal beings wandering the planet? Or why you have your relics? Or do I need to bring up your silver eyes as well?**

" _I sent relics to summon us when humanity is ready, and Ozma is to be their guide._ " He said, trying to save face.

I rolled my eyes. " **Yes, and look at what a fine job Ozma has done.** " I said. Before my brother could, reply I took a step forward and put a hand on his shoulder. " **Face it, Brother, in trying to fix our creation, you made a mess instead. I am just cleaning up your mess. So why don't you just sit back and enjoy the show?** "

My brother stared at me for a bit before speaking. " _We will speak of this later._ "

And with that, he was off in a pillar of light.

" **You say that every time I win an argument.** " Seriously, being the god of "light" does not mean he's always right. We both make mistakes, but he always tries to wheedle his way out of it whenever it's his fault. Ah, well.

I looked down in time to seeing Jaune waking up from slumber.

" **Now, let's see how you handle things from here, Young Hero,** " I said, watching with rapt attention. This was going to be amusing and, if the boy succeeded, so satisfying.

 _Jaune Pov…_

Walking up, I let out a groan as I rubbed my eyes.

"Ugh, my head."

" _That's weird,"_ I thought, _"Why does my voice sound so high pi-"_

I stilled as I saw my hand. My really small hand.

"Did they send me into the body of a five-year-old or something?" I asked.

I took a look around the room and a lot of stuff that a five-year-old would have. "Gotta say, the kid has good taste. Reminds me a lot of my old room. Just wish that I didn't take the body of someone so young," I said with a guilty sigh.

"Welp, nothing for it now," I said to myself. "I better go see what I've got to work with."

That settled, I went into the bathroom that was in this kids room. I locked the door behind me and got to the sink before I realized that I was way too short to see myself in the mirror.

"Seriously? Couldn't you have put me in a body of fifteen-year-old, at least?" I asked the heavens. Getting no answer, I grabbed a stepping stool that was nearby and put in place so that I could get up and actually see what I looked like. Once I was able to see myself, though, I froze. Staring right at me was a five-year-old version of myself. My reflection blinked owlishly before I did what any sensible man in this situation might do.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

 **Well, here we are. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. IF so be sure to vote for this story in the polls! With that being said. See you all next time.**

 **Next chapter**

 **A Brothers Wager**


	5. A Brother's Wager

**Hello, there internet! Journeymen here with the pilot chapter of A Brothers Wager! I hope you all enjoy it and if you did, be sure to vote for it in the polls!**

 **Editor: Grano_Onis**

* * *

The ash settled on the war-torn battlefield. In the remains of a castle in the Grimm Lands was a group of young heroes. The yellow dragon, Yang Xiao Long, whose power was brighter than the sun. The Winter's Queen, Weiss Schnee, held winter in her hand. The forgotten shadow, Blake Belladonna, who took the shadow for herself. The Goddess of Thunder, Nora Valkyrie, whose might was only matched by her love for pancakes. The Lotus Monk, Lie Ren, who wanted peace across the land. Finally, The Paladin, Jaune Arc, whose will spread to all others.

There they stood, resolute against the Immortal Witch, Salem, who sought to end all things for her own perfect world.

"Do you think you can stop me?" Salem asked the group. "I'll admit, you have made a major set back in my plans, but that's all you can do. You can't stop me, you can't _kill_ me. So what are you going to do?" Salem asked before sending a blast of fire towards the group.

A wall of stone suddenly rose from the ground and intercepted the attack.

"I'm afraid that you _will_ be stopped today, Salem," A voice said. All turned to look towards the source.

"Oscar!" The group of hero's cried out. Salem settled on just glaring daggers at him before the sound of thousands of bullheads filled the air. From over the mountains to the west, an entire armada of warships arrived.

"Salem, on behalf of all of Humanity, we have come to stop you," The voice of none other than General Ironwood said as he walked up right next to Oscar.

"So," Qrow said, appearing out from his bird form to land next to the two, "Why don't you make it easier for us and give up now?"

Salem growled in response. She looked towards her armies of Grimm to see only soldiers and huntsman alike charging forwards against her forces.

"It is over, Salem," Oscar said, "Humanity has joined forces against you. You will never win."

Salem's hand clenched in anger.

"OZMA!" She roared out as she launched a torrent of magical energy towards Oscar. Said energy was topped as Oscar held up the relic of creation and projected a burst of energy that stopped the attack.

The others took this as their time to strike, Ironwood taking the initiative and fired a shot that struck Salem in the head. The bullet wound healed instantly, but it did its job of stunning her, allowing Qrow and Ruby charged in with their scythes at the ready to bisect her. Unfortunately, Salem formed a shield of energy, blocking the two attacks. Following up, Nora and Yang came in with their incredible strength, striking simultaneously, and broke the shield. The shield exploded as it did so, sending the four flying back from the force.

Before Salem could retaliate, Ren and Blake both appeared behind her and stabbed their respective weapons into the witch, causing her to pause just enough for Weiss to encase everything up to her head in ice.

This is the end!" Ruby screamed. Her eyes shined with the power of the silver-eyed warriors. What's more, their strength against the Grimm was enhanced by the power of Jaune's semblance. Before Salem could even scream, the blade of Crescent Rose slammed into and through her gut. Slowly, her body started to turn into stone until all that was left of her was a statue.

They all knew that would not be the end, however. Salem was immortal. She could escape from this. The heroes, however, were not done. Before the stone could begin to crack, Jaune grabbed a sword, the Relic of Destruction, and decapitated the witch with the fabled weapon.

The group watched as the statue crumbled into dust.

"W..we did it!" Ruby laughed out loud. Soon the others joined her. Some even hugged each other as they all reviled in there celebrations.

They had done it. They had won.

* * *

 _Somewhere unknown…_

" **That was complete bullshit!** " A purple being with a pair of ram horns on his head shouted from his couch as he threw a bag of chips at a tv, which just showed happened to show the scene that was just witnessed.

" _Come, Brother, it wasn't that bad,_ " A yellow being with antlers said to his apparent brother.

The purple being turned and looked at him as if he was a complete and utter stranger. It was kinda funny seeing as how they don't technically have defined eyes.

" **The fuck are you talking about? That was complete shit.** " He said.

The yellow being rolled his non-existent eyes.

" _Oh, please. You're just saying that cause you don't like how it ended._ " He said.

The brother of darkness threw a pretzel at him. " **I'm not just upset with how it ended…** " He said.

" _Here we go._ " The god of light said taking a sip from his soda.

His younger brother either didn't hear his comment or decided to ignore it. **"I'm upset with how the whole thing fucking went. No one important died after Beacon, it took forever for me to be mentioned, let alone seen, there was just constant fucking teasing for relationships-"**

And the older brother decided to cut in there. " _They're kids. They aren't exactly the best with their feelings. Besides, you don't need relationships for a good story._ " He said.

The god of darkness nodded his head. " **True, but when it's teased that much and you kill a character for it, then you at the least have to have them fucking kiss. And no love triangles or whatever shape of fuckery Blake had to deal with.** "

" _I believe a Pentagon would go well_."

A chip was thrown at him in response to that.

" **Stop cutting me off,"** the purple being said. **"Now where was I?** "

" _I believe you were about to complain about the villains_." The yellow being supplied.

" **Ah yes, how could I forget the complete mess that the villains were. I mean, what happened to them! Each one could be described by a single troupe. Hazel? Vengeful dickhead. Tyrian? Crazy dickhead. Raven? Angsty dickhead. Wattz? Smart dickhead Cinder? Bitch.** " He listed.

The god of light shook his head.

" _Must you use such crass language?_ " He asked.

His response was a middle finger as he continued his rant. " **And any good villains were killed! Roman? Killed by a griffin. Adam, killed for some fucking fanservice.** "

" _I quite enjoyed his death_ ," The yellow being said. His brother glared at him. " **Complete waste of potential. And don't even get me started on the heroes,** " He warned.

" _Well, there is nothing we can do about it now. The story is over,_ " The older brother explained as he gestured to the screen, which was now showing the 'epilogue' for the story.

A grin formed on the purple brother's face. " **Well, there is one thing-** "

" _No,"_ the yellow being said firmly, _"We agreed never to do that._ "

" **Aw, cmon,"** the purple being pleaded, **"You know you want to do it just as much as I do. Just imagine how cool it would look.** "

The older brother sighed before humoring his brother and actually gave it some thought.

" _Well, there might be a few things that I would have liked to see_." He conceded.

The purple brother gave a shout in victory, grabbed a remote, pressed rewind, and watched as the world started to turn back in time.

" **Trust me, you're going to love this.** " He promised as the world of Remnant was started anew.

* * *

 _In a hospital…_

"C' mon, baby, just a little more," A father of seven, soon to be eight, said as he held his wife's hand.

"Shut the fuck up! I know what I'm doing!" She said, before taking deep breaths. Her blonde hair clung to her face.

The father smiled. Even swearing her tits off, his wife always looked beautiful. "Just thought you might need a reminder." He replied.

His wife did not appreciate it. "Yeah? Well, how about you remind me to cut your fucking balls off after this," She warned, before giving another push. The father just chuckled nervously and decided to keep his tongue in check lest she promised to remove that too.

A couple pushes later, and a baby was now in the arms of a doctor. What was shocking about the baby, however, was the fact that it was glowing white, and everyone in the room felt an impressive amount of Aura.

"By the gods…" The doctor said, marveling at the fact that the baby already had his aura unlocked.

"Let me see my baby." The wife said.

"Ma'am, you might be too weak," The doctor managed to say. The glare sent his way stopped him and he handed the now bundled up baby to the mother.

The mother looked at the baby boy with great love in her eyes. "My baby boy. My sweet baby boy," She said, stroking his cheek with a lone finger. "Jaune. His name will be Jaune."

She then handed the baby to his father, who had been waiting patiently to hold his son. "Hello, Jaune," he said, "You gave us quite a hard time, but I know you will be a great warrior."

The mother gave a giggle. Said giggle contorted, however, as pain suddenly wracked her body and she started to scream. The doctors rushed towards her, but before they could do anything, a pulse of dark energy surged through the room, flinging everyone back as the father protected his son from the fall. The mother continued to scream bloody murder as it looked like something was trying to push itself out of her stomach. No one could do anything as a dome of dark energy formed around the woman, preventing any approach towards her as she continued to scream for her life. All they could do was watch as the woman was made of a victim of whatever was inside her. The dark dome suddenly crashed into the women, and she gave off a final scream as a flash of white sprang from the woman's chest.

When the flash was over, there, in her arms, was another baby boy. The mother looked away weakly from the baby boy and looked towards her husband.

"Xander… his name… is Xander."

With that, her body stilled and her the heart monitor attached to her let out a long and consistent sound.

"Rose!" The father screamed as the doctors sprang into action to try and save his wife.

One of them took the baby away to be checked up on. No. That thing was no baby.

It was a monster.

* * *

 **Well, here we are. Short I know, but that's how it is sometimes/ Anyway if you enjoyed this story. Be sure to vote for it in the poll that is on my bio. This is Journeymen signing off…**

 **Next Story: Born of Darkness, Forged by Light**


	6. Born of Darkness Forged by Light

**Hello there Internet! Journeymen here for another pilot chapter. Fun fact about this story. I was inspired to write it after I read White Sheep. I hope you all enjoyed this, and if you did be sure to vote for it in the polls! Now let's get this thing going...**

 **Beta: (Currently Looking for A New One)**

 **I do not own RWBY or anything owned by Roosterteeth…**

* * *

The stars were dotted across the night sky as the shattered moon shined at its full potential. The night air was cool and refreshing, and a light breeze brushed against the trees and foliage. And all was quiet as nothing dared make a sound in the presence of the witch.

Good. As she walked through the forest, a small bundle could be seen in her arms. The small bundle was a baby boy, who despite the appearance of the mother now, did not look like her at all. Instead of the white hair and deathly pale skin with the eyes of the Grimm. This baby skin was fair, if a little bit pale, but it was as pure as the moon once was. With golden little tuffs that could be seen on top of his head, But she knew that it would grow to match the majesty of the sun. And dazzling blue eyes that were deeper than any ocean and more precious than any gem. This was her child, Tenebres.

Firstborn of Salem and rightful heir to all that is and ever be. "Oh my sweet child, look at you." She cooed as the baby looked at her with curiosity and innocence that only a babe could hope to have. "I feel the magic within you. It is strong, stronger than possibly my own. You are destined for great things." Salem said with a smile, as her babe of four months made some noises as if trying to communicate. And she giggled sweetly at her babe.

Until. "Mama." The young babe said, and Salem could not believe her ears. So young yet already speaking two months early?

Surely it was a sign. "Oh, my precious Tenebres. You are already so strong." She praised the baby as she kissed his forehead before looking around the woods. "Look around my child, everything you see. Every grain of dirt. Is yours to rule. And I shall be the one to make it so." She said, and her child only had one response. "Mama." She went to go coddle her baby once again.

But a whistling sound could be heard, and her instincts screamed danger. So thinking fast, she used her magic to form a shield to block the incoming projectile. "Who dares!" She growled, looking toward the offender.

Only to see a man with an oversized sword with two barrels attached to it, his hair was dark but some grey was starting to form, though hardly noticeable. And eyes that reminded her of red wine. Next to him was a tan man with golden hair and blue eyes with two gauntlets on his wrist. There was also a woman with silver eyes and a white hood, with black hair and red tips. "You creatures dare think to attack me?" Salem threatened as dark wisps of magic started to come off her body.

Only the sounds of discomfort from her child stopped her from unleashing her wrath. "So I see you have had another child." A man said, his hair was silver and his eyes brown as he walked with a cane despite not needing one.

"Ozma," Salem growled, her eyes glowed red. Before she noticed that four other figures were with him. And from the magical power, she sensed from them. She knew them to be maidens.

She snorted in amusement. "Come to try and stop me again Ozma? I'm surprised, I would have thought that I would have to go all the way to that precious school of yours to see your corpse." Salem then put her eyes onto the silver-eyed women. "Trying with another silver eyed warrior I see? Or is that why you brought your maidens here?" She gave a coy smile as some. And by some, she means almost all of them. Glared at her.

All except Ozma. "Actually, we came here for a different reason." A moment of confusion took her, before realization her as she found her former lovers eyes on her babe. "Now!" Ozma commanded, and they all struck.

The blonde and the red eyes charged at Salem. But with a swift wave of her hand, they were blown away. Next came the silver-eyed warrior whose eyes went white with her power as Salem looked to see her arm turned to stone.

And with her other arm holding/protecting her baby. She now had to rely on other means to attack and use her magic. Black Tendrils came from her clothes and wrapped around the silver-eyed women and her neck. But before she could snap it, the dark-haired man separated her tendrils from her by cutting them in half. And before she could retaliate against him.

A blast of fire, wind, ice, and earth headed her way. Forcing her magic in her petrified arm. She freed her arm and used it to put up a ward to protect her from the blast. But the force of the blow still sent her flying. And the only thing she could do was protect her child by using her body and magic when they hit the dirt.

Checking to see if her child was okay, she heard his cries. But he was otherwise fine. And she tried to soothe her child. "Shh, sh. It's okay my sweet prince. Your mother shall protect you." She promised before she felt her head leave her neck. And her body went limp as her head rolled on the dirt. She glared at the offender to see that it was a woman with a mask designed to replicate her Grimm. And she could do nothing but glare at the women stepped aside to show Ozma.

He said nothing as he went over to her babe. And fear took her, as she tried to will her body to heal faster. But she could do nothing, not even curse his name as she watched him pick up her child before she looked at towards the masked women and nodded his head. And with a swing of her sword, a portal opened and Ozma and pets all stepped through. And just as her body was whole yet again.

The portal closed, leaving her alone. With her baby gone. "Curse you Ozma! I swear upon the gods that I will destroy everything and everyone you have tried to protect! YOU HEAR ME OZMA! EVERYONE SHALL DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!" She screamed as her power and anger grew to much and exploded from her body. Destroying everything for miles. As the mother grieved for her lost baby.

* * *

 _Ozpin…._

As the last of us stepped through the portal. I immediately took the baby from Raven. And set him down on a table near the crib that held a baby Yang. Pooling my magic, or what was left of it.

I place my hands on his chest and placed a seal on him. To hide his magical power. "There, she won't be able to find him now," I said, breathing a little easier knowing that we were able to accomplish our goal with no casualties.

"Ozpin, what did we just do?" Qrow asked, and I looked at the young lad with a small smile.

"We just bought the world a little more time. Maybe even saved it." I said, and it truly was the case. Everyone with even a hint of magic in them felt the power of this child when he was born. It was immense, and I knew that if Salem had her way with him. Then all his plans would be doomed, and humanity along with it.

"It doesn't look that way." Said, Raven with as she took off her mask and set it down. On the table next to the baby.

"Raven, I know it may seem wrong. But this was for the best." I tried to reason, but she just scoffed before walking out.

"Raven, where are you going?" Tai called out.

Raven looked towards him and everyone else. "I'm going to get something to drink. Preferably strong enough to make me forget what we just did." She said, before walking out and closing the door.

"I'll go talk to her," Tai said, following after his wife.

Summer then walked over to the baby and smiled as the baby stared at her innocently unaware of its current situation. "Are we sure this was the right thing to do? We did just take a child away from there mother." Summer said with doubt of her actions heavy in her voice.

"Summer, if that child stayed with her. It would mean the end of us all." I said.

Qrow put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It had to be done Summer," Qrow reassured.

Summer gave him an appreciative smile for his efforts, before looking towards me. "What now Ozpin?" Summer asks, and I looked towards the baby.

"Well, there are two options. We either kill the child to prevent them from becoming a threat." I said, and I got glares from everyone who was still in the room, which showed there answer. "Or, someone raises the child. Makes sure that when the time comes. That he will choose the light." I said, and I looked towards the others.

"You want to turn this child into a weapon?" The winter maiden asked. Her ice blue eyes staring at him with a coldness that was like winter itself.

"On the contrary. I hope this child will never know this battle that has plagued us for millennia. Just like I hope the same for all children in this world." I said, and the winter maiden. Willow Schnee. Scoffed, but said nothing else.

"So who will take the child?" The spring maiden said, a raccoon Faunus shown by her ears with light brown hair and green eyes by the name of Viri.

Everyone was silent, before the summer maiden. Rose Arc, stepped forward. "I will, I've always wanted to have a son. And my daughters have been begging me for a new addition to the family. Plus, he looks a lot like me don't you think?" She said the last part with a smile. As she picked up the baby with a smile. The baby then began to giggle as well as it lifted up it's little arms to try and get closer to Rose.

I looked towards the others, and upon seeing that no one was objecting. I nodded my head. "Very well, I'll stop by once and a while to reinforce the seal. May the sun forever shine." I said, and I got a chorus of "And the moon never fall." in reply. Before we all left. Leaving a mother with her new son.

* * *

 **So what do you guys think? Also, just a couple more chapters before the poll closes. So if you like it, be sure to vote for it in the poll! Until next time, this is Journeymen signing off!**

 **Next Story: Man Made King**


	7. Man Made King

**Hello Internet! Journeymen here for the first chapter of Man-Made King! Now I got this story idea from The Once and Future King by kingsguardian12. And it was one of the funnier stories I had planned. Also just note this story has a lot of connections and character inspirations from the story of King Arthur and other popular medieval myths/ legends. Also, lots of OC's but I think that was kinda apparent. Now I hope you all enjoy this story and if you do please leave a review to let me know.**

 **Beta: Still looking**

 **I do not own RWBY or anything made by Roosterteeth…**

* * *

Out of all the classes, everyone's favorite was combat class. This implied to every year of Beacon students. And this is where we find the current third years of Beacon Academy. Cheering as one of the members of the new team GALT or Gallant was facing off against the entire team CRDL. Which was most surprising seeing as how while in there the first year yes. They were considered the cannon fodder of the student body.

There constant battles and victories helped them carved there spot as one of the strongest teams in Beacon, and a contender for the future Vytal festival. And it was not only there prowess in battle that had changed, but there looks as well. Cardin had finally stopped growing and was considered a giant of a man at nearly seven feet tall. Only slightly shorter then Yatsuhashi who managed to cross that threshold. His auburn hair now reached a little bit below the nape of his neck. And now had an eyepatch where his right eye used to be after he became too careless and underestimated the strength and anger that a dying Beowolf can display. Though it could be hardly seen under his helmet which like the rest of his armor was grey with a gold lining which helped display the t-shaped visor of the helmet and the golden wings of the cardinal that were shown on each side. His body was covered with extra pieces of armor with his emblem proudly displayed on his chest and pauldrons.

Sky in contrast to his leader. Got his hair cut to where now instead of a mullet he now has more of a buzzcut like you would find in the army. But besides that, he hasn't changed that much in appearances. However, what has changed is his gear switching to lighter combat armor weave of kevlar into his light blue leather armor. He has also given his halberd the ability to mecha shift into a war ax. With the pole or shaft of the weapon able to jut out of its position at the top with combined with the spear blade on the top makes a great surprise weapon, and can even be launched like a spike or javelin if a ranged weapon is needed.

Russell is probably the least changed among them. With his mohawk being shorter. And his daggers being switched for short swords. However, both of his swords now have dust revolvers given him an elemental edge in fights.

Finally, Dove, much like Cardin downed more armor. And switched his sword to a longsword, while upgrading the barrels on his sword to be shot out in bursts. And thanks to the help from a crimson reaper. Added a wrist cannon for extra stopping power in those more dicey situations.

However despite all these upgrades, and the near-perfect teamwork they were displaying. They were still having trouble fighting against this mysterious student. Said student ducked under a swipe of Cardin's mace as he parried the attack from Sky's ax, and kicked Russell who was trying to attack from behind, sending him back. Before blocking an overhead strike from Dove, who smirked as he let his hand fall and fired his wrist rocket only to be shocked when the ball of iron was caught by a wall of water shaped like a catchers mitt that had formed where the shot was supposed to land. Before Dove could do anything his sword was knocked from his grip and the pommel of one of his swords was sent crashing into his face before he was given a slash across the chest. A final kick to the chest that sent him crashing into the wall. "Dove Bronzewing is knocked out viva aura and ring out." Glynda declared, and the screen showed true with Doves Aura in the red. With Skys being a yellow orangish, and Russell and Cardin are still in the yellow with Cardin's still holding a green tint. Where the mysterious student had maybe a sliver missing.

"Wow, he is really something," Pyrrha said in admiration and a little excitement of facing off against a new strong opponent. Pyrrha had undergone her own wardrobe change. Now wearing actual protective armor, Her chest piece now no longer shows off her generous cleavage. Much to the dismay of her fanbase. She also now wears flats instead of heals and she as also has forgone the skirt in exchange for more protection for her legs. Though she still wears the red sash.

"Yeah, and he looks good in that armor too," Yang said with a sultry grin. Yang now wears a tan jacket with an orange lining and gold edging unzipped halfway to show her orange crop top. The coat has dark brown short sleeves, a thick collar that encircles her neck. And two gold-trimmed rectangular tails which are detachable. And wears form-fitting black pants, with a brown belt and knee high brown boots with gold plates on the heal and toe. And a gold zipper in front on the upper half of each boot and a purple bandana tied around her left knee and black fingerless gloves.

"Oh, Yang you're not thinking of leaving us for this mysterious knight are you?" Nora said a teasing grin on her face as her eyebrow wiggled. Nora is wearing a white top with an emblem of a heart cut out on the chest with a diagonal line across it and a navy blue bomber jacket that remained unzipped with her emblem on the back of it. With a slightly longer pink skirt and knee-high pink socks that barely poke out of her calf-length boots which were white with pink laces. And her orange hair now reached her shoulders

"Hey, I'm allowed to look. Just not touch." Yang said getting an eye roll from Nora in response.

"Still he is rather impressive," Blake said eyeing the student with interest as he knocks Sky out by using his own weapon against him. "Very impressive." She continues, her cat ears freely shown as they twitch from a gust of wind from Cardin's missed attack. Blake wore a long white tailcoat with dark grey lining and a sleeveless black crop top that freely showed her stomach. As well with her form-fitting black pants that held her emblem on the left leg but was mostly covered by her thigh high black heeled boots.

"Yeah, but he could never be Mordred," Ruby said and as if to prove her point Cardin is able to land a solid hit on the student sending him back a few feet. "See!" She shouted excitedly.

"Quiet you, dolt! None of us were thinking he could beat him. Were just admiring his skill." Weiss said, reprimanding her team leader. Both girls have changed as well, with Weiss's body having gotten a jumpstart in the last two years. With a body much like her older sisters. Though still needing to be filled in some places. She wears form light blue stockings that gain more color the farther up her leg you go while being almost white at her feet, with white heeled boots and a strapless light blue dress that ends at her knees and a white cropped jacket with the Schnee emblem a light blue on the back of it.

Ruby wears a white high neck decolletage blouse with brown studded wristbands on her arms. She still wears a black skirt with red tulle underneath. But she now wears a black corset that is kept together by a red string. And now has thigh high stockings with a long-stemmed red rose decorated them, with red sole black boots. And thanks to puberty, though if asked she would tell you it was all the milk. She has grown into a stunning young beauty and has caught the eye of more than one student of Beacon.

"Now, now girls. Let us not be too hasty. This guy looks really skilled." Mordred said, putting his hand on both Weiss and Ruby. Getting an exciting shiver from his touch. Mordred was the exact description of a prince, his jet black hair was medium in length was styled in that prince charming style haircut that when seen on most people you kinda wanted to punch them for it. But on him it made people swoon. And with his sharp green eyes, and just handsome features in general. He was considered the heartthrob of the school. Making him the envy of almost every guy in school. And that was excluding the fact that he somehow was able to get into a relationship of every girl of team RWBY and the remnants of JNPR now known as MNVL, with Ren being the only one who didn't worship the very ground he walked on.

Thus ostracized from his team, and you could find him far away from his teammates. With a small smile on his face as he watched the match and Russell is knocked out as the student sent his pommel against his temple. Leaving only the student and Cardin to face off against each other. Everyone was silent as they watched the match with a fierce intensity. Seeing how this mysterious student would face against Cardin. The two stood off against each other as Cardin pressed a button on his mace causing the fire dust crystal in his mace to go into overdrive as the fire started to pour out of any opening it could find.

Before the mace transformed to look more like an oversized torch. "Well, he had a good run, but now that Cardin has brought his scorch crystal. He doesn't stand a chance." Weiss said, and the others nodded. Mordred has been the only one to actually beat Cardin when he breaks out that crystal. Even with Weiss knowledge of dust, she still couldn't beat it. The scorch crystal was some of the latest inventions of the SDC with the fussing of five fire crystals and a wind and gravity crystal. What was given was a never-ending fire crystal that just got hotter and more powerful the longer it was out.

However, the student looked unaffected as he held up his right sword. The blue gems in the pommel and guard looking like they were glowing. Though that could just be the reflection of the fire. Cardin then grabbed his torch with both hands sending a swirling vortex of fire so hot it has been known to melt stone towards the student. However, he made no notion to move and gasps filled the air as he was completely covered in the flames. Everyone was shocked and Cardin immediately cut off the flames in worry for the student.

But that worry turned to astonishment as when the flames stopped their onslaught the student stood unharmed. And before anyone could react, he swung his other sword, and from it came pillars of the earth that jutted from the ground before slamming into Cardin. His Aura breaking from the attack. "Cardin Winchester is out by Aura. Winner team GALT." Glynda announced, and everyone was quiet. Before a single clap was heard, and everyone turned to see it was Ren who had a huge smile on his face. Which was weird to see on the stoic man.

From his initiative, the dam burst as cheers and applause filled the room. All praising the student. The Mysterious student wore a suit of plated armor of white and gold, with the guard brace that was normally on the shield arm, was instead replaced with another pauldron so that he could dual wield his two swords effectively. Speaking of his swords, in both hands he held two hands and a half swords, with both the guard and pommel being golden. The blades and grip, however, were blue and green respectively and had two gems of the corresponding color in the guard and pommel of the swords. His helmet was slim and had angel feathers protruding out from both sides of it and had a screen covering the face and there were two claps on his back that would allow his blue cape to hang from his back. Which he had taken off before his fight.

The rest of his team had similar designs to there armor, with just some small changes here and there and different color palettes. "Team GALT now that you have given us a demonstration. Would you mind introducing yourselves?" Glynda asked and the Mysterious student nodded before he looked to his team.

The first one to step up was also the biggest one there. Standing around seven foot 3 around the same height of Yatsuhashi. The man had a tower shield that reached his height on his right arm, his helmet was bulkier and had two tucks at the bottom of the helmet and a T-shape black screen. He also had his armor colored in an earthly green with golden trim, and a green cape clasped to his back. Taking off his helmet many were surprised to see what looked like to be the very giant himself. "Hello everyone, my name is Gawain Daichi it will be an hour to fight with you." He said in his loud but serine voice.

The next to step up didn't wear a helmet he had fair skin and long flowing brown hair. But what was most surprising was the silver eyes he carried. His armor was silver and gold and was missing a few more pieces for extra mobility. But he seemed to have no weapon on him, and on his back was a silver cape. "Lancelot Rose, a pleasure." He said with a voice like silk, giving a bow to complete his greeting. And already some of the ladies in the room started to blush.

The next to step up proceed to hit Lancelot on the head. "Enough of that." An annoyed feminine voice said. She turned to the captain while Lancelot nursed his wound. "Names Boudica, and no one messes with the captain while I'm around." Boudica declared not bothering to take off her helmet. The women wore red and gold armor and on her helmet was two horns that gave the appearance of a devil, and strapped to her side were two battle axes and of course a red cape clasped to her back.

The last was none other than the mysterious student himself. "Well, I've already met some of you before. But I guess I could reintroduce myself." The students looked on in confusion except for Ren who just continued to smile.

Of course, those looks of confusion turned to looks surprise. Especially with team RWBY and MNVL, however with Mordred. He only held a look of anger as the helmet was removed to reveal a certain blonde knight.

"JAUNE!?"

* * *

 **Here we are if you guys like this chapter and think this story is interesting. Be sure to vote for it in the polls. Until next time this is Journeymen signing off.**

 **Next Chapter: Of Dragons Monsters And Celestials**


	8. Of Dragons Monsters & Celestials

**Hello, there internet! Journeymen here for the Pilot Chapter of Of Dragons Monsters & Celestials. The third to last of the last of these chapters before the poll is closed. So this the prime time to get to voting! Also, sorry for the late upload, I've gotten caught up in playing Destiny 2 again. Now with that being said let's get this going now, shall we?**

 **Beta: Still Looking**

 **I do not own RWBY or anything made by Roosterteeth…**

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"No! No please!" Another of my kind cried out before they were mercilessly butchered by the foolishness of my creations.

Naievity, true to there core. Was too trusting of them. And was butchered for there mistrust. Now it has come back to me, to seek protection and shelter. With the rest of our kin. And I accept them with open arms as they join the rest of there kin in slumber.

Waiting for there minds to heal before rejoining the world. Only for them to be killed once again. The universe was unbalanced, there was too much death, too much destruction. And all its attempts to correct the balance were met with the point of a sword, or gun, or whatever they murdered my kind with.

Well no more, fury bubbled in my core. And Rage stirred in there slumber at the amount that was spewing out. Nothing of this plane should be able to produce more than Rage itself. But it has made Rage, just as it had made Sadness, and Joy, Space and Time, and Life. Thus it was not bound to such rules. And the universe shook as it's fury, as the mortals cowered and the 'gods' begged for it to calm.

But it would not. For too long had its kind had been butchered over and over again. Death and Destruction stuck to this universe like a foul stench. And it refused to let it linger any longer.

The universe has called for balance. And Creation shall answer the call.

* * *

 _Salems Pov…_

I looked upon my lands as I stood on top of a balcony on the tallest tower of my palace, I looked upon as I watched my creations crawl out of there birthing pools and headed for any source of life.

It was ironic, that I a being of destruction would use the tools of creation to carry out my desires. But if it wasn't broke, don't fix it until it's lost its use. And it has worked wonderfully.

No being has been able to conquer her, no god has been able to subdue her. And she has been able to bring destruction wherever she went. But for the price for her victory was the near eradication of her kind.

It brought her sorrow every time she thought of it. Of how her people were hunted like animals all because of her. Because she couldn't deny her nature. She couldn't even offer them asylum, as her core called for there eradication. She had learned to suppress it with her lessers, as long as they served her. But there was still the occasional accidents and outbursts. And as long as she couldn't control herself. Her kind was too suffer.

She felt something bubble inside of her before it was destroyed along with any other feelings. Leaving her nothing but an empty shell, devoid of any emotion. With only the desire to destroy. Then the railing that I was holding onto disintegrated. And I watched as the dust was blown away from the wind. I watched it flow away and my nails dug into a palm? And I felt a wet trail slide down my cheek. Before it too was destroyed. Why was I cursed?

Suddenly, the ground. No, the world shook as I was washed over with a rage so strong and potent that it would make Rage look like a spoiled kid in comparison. I felt my core swell in power as it wished to nothing more to find the source of such anger and snuff it out. The Grimm howled and roared as they followed in there masters desire. They began to attack anything in sight including each other.

Until finally everything stilled, and my core subsided with it. My skin had a sheen of sweat and I was breathing heavy at the face of such power. But despite that, a smirk dawned my face.

"My Goddess!" A frantic voice shouted from behind me. "What was that?" The scorpion Faunus Tyrion asked.

"It was balanced, finally being restored," I said, the smile still on my face. Something that has never lasted for this long. But that was just even more of a sign of the times to come.

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 _Ironwood Pov…_

I sat at my desk, reading the latest report from the borders. Grimm activity has increased by five percent these three months. Which most likely meant there was going to be another siege. A sigh escaped my lips as I prepared to send platoon fifty-two to reinforce the border and see if they can take care of this mess.

There was a buzz on the desk and I saw it came from my line that was connected to the front desk. "Yes, Susan?" I asked, my finger on the intercom.

"Winter is here to see you, sir." She told me, and I looked at the time.

"I didn't expect her to be back so soon," I said to myself before turning back to the intercom. "Very well, send her in," I said, but I got no reply.

But soon enough the door Winter Schnee entered the room. The young women gave a salute. "Sir, I am here for my report on the mission." She said, and I nodded my head.

"At ease Winter, there is no need for such around me. Take a seat." I said, and she nodded as her body relax. But still held the regalness that was expected from a Schnee. She took the seat in front of me, and once again I had to wonder if their family claim of being descendants of angels had any merit. But I put the thoughts aside. "Would you like something to drink?" I asked, but she shook her head no.

I should have expected the answer. She never was one to truly relax around others. One of the many lessons drilled into her by her father. "So what's the report?" I asked, and her shoulders tensed once again as she went back to 'Soldier Mode.'

"Sir, we had located the Celestial. It had taken a small boy." She informed as I scowled.

Do these things no know limits? "I trust it was dealt with?" I asked and Winter nodded.

"Affirmative, the Celestial has been eliminated." She said and I nodded my head.

"Good, maybe it will stay dead this time. We will continue to monitor for any further signs of-" I was cut off as a huge rumbling shook the entire building.

"Is this an earthquake?" Winter screamed, but I gave no reply as an unholy fear gripped my heart as I felt a wave of ungodly anger pointed directly at me. It was worse than even the Celestials!

The windows behind me cracked before shattering to pieces raining glass across the room. And a huge gale of wind followed it as Winter and I along with many of contents of in the room were flung into the wall. The only thing that prevented our injuries was our Aura.

Soon after the winds subsided and the rumbling stopped. "What in the hell was that? An earthquake?" Winter asked, letting her facade go, and I saw the fear in her eyes.

"I don't know," I replied before the door swung open and out stepped a soldier.

"Sir! The C.L.D is going off the charts!" The soldier exclaimed and I stood up straight and my mouth settled into a thin line as I entered 'General Mode.'

"Show me. Winter with me." I commanded and both nodded as we're led to the vault that held the Celestial Location Device or C.L.D for short. Was a veritable supercomputer that was able to track and locate areas in the world with a large dosage of C.E or Creation Energy. The very things that makeup Celestials. With it, we were able to locate any new Celestials that came into the world.

But upon laying eyes on the I saw the supercomputer on the fritz as smoke was billowing from it and the entire screen was lit up in a dazzling display. "What the hell is going on!" I yelled, and the soldier that brought us here started to explain.

"Sir, just before the earthquake. We were getting a steady rise in C.E. We thought it was the Celestial Specialist Winter was supposed to take care of. But it suddenly started to skyrocket an-" Just before he could continue I looked to the C.L.D and saw that it started to spark out of control.

"Everybody get down!" I yelled but the warning was not enough, as those to close to the computer were caught up in the explosion. I held up my arm to shield my gaze from the blast.

Looking down I saw a couple of the scientists and soldiers close to the explosion were gravely injured with burns of varying degrees. "Get some medics down here pronto. And someone get me Ozpin!" I yelled as I went to the closest unlucky soul caught in the blast. He had a piece of metal in his abdomen. "Hang in there, we will get you help. Just keep the pressure on the wound. And whatever you do, don't pull out." I joked, but there was a reason I wasn't a comedian and the man just nodded weakly as he tried to put as much pressure on as he could. With some help from me.

"Sir!" A man called out and I saw it was a soldier with a scroll.

"Winter, keep the pressure on his wound," I ordered, and Winter did as ordered, and doing a much better job at comforting the man than I probably could. Probably because what man wouldn't want a woman as beautiful as her comforting them.

Taking the scroll from the soldier I pulled it up to my ear. "Ozpin what the hell was that?" I exclaimed, and there was silence on his end for a while before a calm voice spoke.

"The Balance being restored." He said, and before I could question it he hung up the scroll.

Before I could call him back, I saw that the scroll was now bubbles. "Damnt!" I cursed and looked to the soldier who had given me the scroll. "Give me the reports of the C.L.D before it went haywire. I want answers to what is happening." I ordered and he nodded before walking off, and I took the moment to look around me.

The medics were arriving and taking care of the injured while the fires will be put down. "What could have caused the C.L.D to react like that?" I wondered to myself before the soldier returned with a piece of paper.

"Sir, this was it was saying before the explosion." He said, and I snatched the paper from his hand and read it's context.

All the paper said was one word, repeated over and over again. "Creation," I whispered to myself.

Before I crumpled the paper and threw it in frustration. "Whatever your planning Ozpin, I will put a stop to it and you," I promised.

* * *

 _Ozpin Pov…_

I turned off the scroll and pocketed it, while I focused my powers to give a small surprise to James on the other end. "Are you sure that was wise sir?" Glynda asked, and I gave her a small smirk.

"There is no reason to worry. This day that has been long since coming." I said, but Glynda still looked worried.

"Yes, I know, as you have said plenty of times. But are you sure you have to go there alone?" She asked, and gestured to the cave in front of us.

The origin. "Yes, I am sure. If anyone else was to enter. It could jeopardize everything." I explained, and she looked reluctant but nodded her head and took a step back. I gave her a reassuring smile before I turned back to the gaping maw like entrance.

I stepped inside, and soon the light of the outside left me. But I held no fear as I had no need of light. I had seen myself and many others walk this path many times. Everything was coming together. For millennia, I had looked into the steams of time. Looking for a solution, the thing that will save my kind, to restore the balance.

All outcomes pointed to this exact moment, at this exact location. Letting my feet guide me, I came upon the epicenter of it. The resetting of the scales.

All lead to me, standing over the body of a recently formed body of a seventeen-year-old boy, with blonde hair.

I smiled as he began to stir. "Hello, Creation," I said, as opened his eyes for the first time and set his gaze on me.

"W-who?"

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 **Well here we are, there are only two more chapters after this one. So get on going to the polls to vote for what new story you want! Until next time this is Journeymen signing off!**

 **Next Chapter: An Arc Around the World**


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